Power Rangers: Earth Defenders
by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley
Summary: When a group of demons come to destroy Earth, a new group of heroes have to come together and use the elements to fight back and save the Earth. They are the Power Rangers: Earth Defenders!
1. Prologue

**Hey guys, I'm back with another story! First of all, however, here's the prologue.**

 **Iris is portrayed by Kerry Washington**

 **Professor Miles King is portrayed by Tom Hardy**

 **Kenny is portrayed by Grant Gustin**

 **Dylan is portrayed by Amber Heard**

* * *

In the dark of night, a woman, at about the age of 35 years old, rushed across the Hastings Hill University campus, almost running to get up into the loft above the bookstore. She pulled her keys out, the sound of the key's clinking against each other making her curse under her breath, as were the sounds of her high heels against the concrete.

She wanted to be as silent as possible.

Getting to the door, she looked through her key ring for the correct one as she heard sounds from behind her. Someone was following her.

The woman moved too quickly and dropped her keys. She immediately dropped to her knees and picked up the correct key, shoving it into the hole in the door quickly, looking behind her as she turned it.

There was a shadow in the trees nearby, and the key was stuck in the hole.

"Damn it!" She exclaimed out loud, pulling the key out so hard that she fell back in her white pencil skirt onto the dirty concrete. The woman looked back, seeing the creature still staring at her, not having moved a muscle.

She pushed herself hastily to her feet and rushed into the building, locking the glass doors behind her. She looked outside, but nothing was there.

"Where are you Klesa?" She whispered, looking around, but continuing to see nothing. Despite seeing nothing, she pulled the blinds down after chaining the doors shut from the inside, as she did nearly every night, no matter what happened. She knew she could get attacked at anytime.

The strange thing, however, is that Klesa had never attacked her. Klesa would stalk her around the campus, but had never actually came out of the shadows to grab her or harm her. She simply watched the woman.

"Iris?" A tired voice said from behind her, getting her attention. Iris turned suddenly, seeing a male figure in the dark of the room. The male flipped the light switch on, revealing his and Iris' face.

Iris was about 5'4, with dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair, with beautiful features. She wore a black shirt tucked into a white pencil skirt and black high heels. She looked very professional. The young man, about the age of 21, however, had pale skin, brown hair, and blue eyes. He wore a black long sleeved shirt with blue jeans, and dark sneakers. He also wore a pair of black framed glasses on his face.

"Kenny," She said, a hand on her chest. "You scared me." Iris told him, trying to blow off what had just happened.

Kenny raised an eyebrow at her. "Were you attacked?" He asked, crossing his arms. He obviously knew that something else happened - something she wasn't telling him.

The older woman shrugged, setting down her black bag. "No, like usual. Klesa just stalked me, like she's been doing for the past month or so. I don't understand what her goal is."

"Maybe to see if you've done anything about her and the demons," Kenny told her, making her scowl at him. "Well, it's true. I've seen Dnais stalking me too. They're waiting to see if we make a move, Iris, and we should."

Iris sat down in front of the desk, where Kenny was sitting. She sighed. "I don't know, Kenny. It might be too soon."

"It's never too soon to start saving the world." Kenny pointed out, giving her a pointed look. "Besides, you and I both heard about the so called 'alien' attacks. What do we plan to do about that? Just sit back and see if Professor King can handle it?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Professor King has nothing to do with this."

Kenny scoffed. "Oh really? Look at this," He reached over and turned on the TV nearby, turning the channel to the news.

 _"Professor Miles King from Hastings Hill University, a man who has earned a Nobel Prize from his research and discovery of extraterrestrial life, has a few words on how to combat these deadly creatures,"_ The news reporter said, standing next to a lightly tanned man with brown hair and green eyes. He looked to be around 40 and wore a suit.

The man, Miles King, took the microphone from her. _"Thank you, Karen,"_ Miles began talking. _"I don't believe these creatures to be aliens, however - they are more likely demons sent from hell and Satan himself."_ He said, making Iris and Kenny roll their eyes. _"We can try to rack up on police officers and militant forces, but I think what we should really do is hope and pray for..."_

"Okay, I've had enough." Iris muttered, clicking the television off. "He's just a cocky bastard - he doesn't know anything."

"Well, he does know that they're demons," Kenny pointed out. "Though, they're not sent from Satan."

"They do come from the underworld," Iris said, giving him a look. "And, even if Miles may know that, he doesn't know how to solve the situation. Praying won't help - we need to take action."

Kenny gave a smirk. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Iris nodded. "Get the morphers and tech ready. We need a group of rangers for this."

\- PRED-

A young woman stood outside of her two-story house, looking up at it as her white mustang idly hummed next to her. She stood at about 5'8 with pale skin, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and beautiful features. She wore a white, off-shoulder wrap crop top, black leggings, and brown, heeled booties. She also had a black bomber jacket in the car passenger seat, and had a diamond stud in the right side of her nose. She was around 20 years old.

"Dylan," A voice called, and she turned to see her great grandfather, Eugene, walking out of the house to send her off. Behind him was his son, and Dylan's great uncle, Lee. "So, this is it, isn't it?"

Dylan nodded, giving them a pursed lip smile. "Yeah, I guess it is." She looked down at the ground. "I wish my mom was here to see this."

"I know," Eugene said. "I wish so too, and so does she. Hopefully she can come see you when she gets back from Kansas."

She scoffed. "Maybe." Dylan quickly ran forward and gave her grandfather a tight hug, and he returned it strongly. "I'll miss you so much."

Eugene buried his face in her shoulder, nodding. She could feel tears on her shoulder. "I'll miss you too, Dylan." He let go and kissed her on the top of the head, smiling with tears in his eyes.

Dylan turned to Lee, smirking. "I'll miss you, too, Commander." The two shared a laugh, and a quick hug, before Dylan walked back over to her car. She opened the drivers door, and took one long look at the house and everything, before getting into her car.

She wiped a few tears from her eyes, turned on the radio, and drove off, waving at the two as she made her way past the house, heading towards Hastings Hill.

* * *

 **Okay, there's the prologue! I'll see you with the next chapter soon!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	2. Ep 1: Defend The Earth Part I

**Here is the first (official) chapter of Power Rangers: Earth Defenders, which I've finally gotten out after a few weeks. I've had some stuff going on, which also includes writer's block, and I always struggle a bit with first chapters, but I finally put this together.**

 **As usual, this story is aimed towards a teenage or more mature audience, as there will be things such as cursing, drinking, and, as you might imagine from seeing some of the character bios, light warning for sexual themes. Not really anything such as explanations into what they're doing, but implications and mild talk between characters will come up.**

 **I DO NOT own Power Rangers or any of the rangers in this series beside Dylan. I would like to thank the people listed below with their characters for creating them!**

 **Oh, and in case you didn't read the prologue, Dylan, Kenny, and Iris' actor/actresses will be right below along with the others.**

 **David is portrayed by Andrew Garfield (created by Kamen rider zero knight)**

 **Dylan is portrayed by Amber Heard (created by myself)**

 **Russ is portrayed by Nadji Jeter (created by RushQuake)**

 **Rowan is portrayed by Liam Hemsworth (created by ICrzy)**

 **Sofia is portrayed by Peyton List (created by Thewhatzupwriter26)**

 **Riley is portrayed by Sophie Turner (created by lauraosnes)**

 **Topher is portrayed by Derek Theler (created by MagicalKittiesInAir)**

 **Iris is portrayed by Kerry Washington (created by myself)**

 **Kenny is portrayed by Grant Gustin (created by myself)**

 **Bryn is portrayed by Emeraude Toubia (created by MagicalKittiesInAir)**

 **The cover photo is up and the opening video link should be in my bio, so check that out if you haven't already! Anyways, sorry for this incredibly long note and here's the story!**

* * *

A cab pulled up outside of Hastings Hill University, with a 21 year old junior in the backseat. His light brown eyes scanned the location, seeing plenty of people, many of which were freshmen exploring the college to figure out where everything was.

The young man in the cab raised an eyebrow slightly at this, wondering why some of these people didn't come a bit earlier to go on a tour. As the cab stopped fully, the young man leaned forward to pay the driver, before grabbing a duffel bag from the seat next to him, before getting out and standing fully up, the sun blinding him at first.

He walked around back and opened the trunk, pulling his suitcase out before closing it and hitting the back twice with his fist to let the driver know he had everything, allowing him to drive off.

This young man had short, shaggy brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and was about 5'10. He wore a red t-shirt with a black trim, torn blue jeans, and brown timberland boots.

As he walked towards his dorm, ready to throw his things down and relax, he silently thanked his luck for getting him into a dorm that wasn't too far from the parking lot. Lost in thought, he was startled to accidentally bump into someone, causing them to drop their things.

He looked down to see a young woman leaning down to pick up her purse and some other things she had dropped. She was about 19 and was very beautiful, with blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and stood at about 5'6. She wore a pink blouse, blue skinny jeans, and white and pink wedged heels.

"I'm so sorry," He cringed, leaning down to pick up some things for her as she stood and straightened up. He handed her some papers she had dropped. "Are you alright?"

She smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah, I'm okay, don't worry about it. It was just a mistake," She shifted her things into one hand and let her suitcase go, resting beside her as she held her hand out to shake his. "I'm Sofia,"

"David," He responded, returning a smile. "So, are you new here? I know this is a pretty big school, but I've been going here for three years I don't think I've ever seen you here before."

Sofia chuckled. "I'm a freshman. Studying pre-med. What about you - what are you studying?"

He gestured to a sketchbook that was sticking out of his duffel bag. "Art. I wanna design graphic novels," David said proudly.

"That's awesome," She smiled, before looking down at a map in her hand. "Hey, I know the last thing you probably want to do is show a freshman where to go, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding my dorm. I would ask my brother, but I have no idea where he disappeared to."

David looked at where she was pointing to on her map, before he gestured to a building nearby. "I think you're actually upstairs from me," He said, chuckling at the surprised look that crossed her face. "The dorms are coed. Guys on the bottom floor, then girls, and so on and so forth. Depends on how many floors there are." David explained. "So, do you want me to show you over there?"

"Really? Thank you so much," Sofia said as they began walking over there. "I would've been looking all day without your help."

"No problem." David nodded. "Glad to help."

 **\- Cue Opening (link in bio) -**

A 22 year old guy was driving into the student parking lot, not really paying much attention to his driving, though he was paying attention to some of the various students that were walking through said lot, specifically some of the people he thought were attractive.

This young man had pale skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes. He was also driving a very nice car - a luxury sports car of some sort with the hood and all of the windows down.

After winking to a girl walking by, he turned back to the road just in time to slam his foot on the brakes when another young man, one with dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair, walked out in front of his car with his headphones in, also not noticing until just before the car hit him. The guy standing in front of his car stared in shock, and the young man in the car leaned himself out of the window.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" He yelled, glaring at the young man he almost hit. "You almost made me hit you!"

The person in front of his car shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you were paying attention to your driving, you wouldn't have almost made that mistake." He said, before walking off, ignoring the young man in the car.

"Whatever," The guy in the car fumed, pulling into a parking spot quickly and rolling his windows and hood back up. Once his car was secure, he turned it off and stepped out, revealing his incredibly tall stature and frame, standing at about 6'5. He wore a black t-shirt under an unbuttoned gray luxury coat, tan jeans, and black boots.

Beside him was a nice white mustang with someone rummaging through the other side. As the young man himself retrieved his suitcase from the back, he watched as the person in the mustang stood up straight, revealing her to be a young woman, looking around for a minute before seeing him.

The young woman was about 5'8, with long dirty blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and beautiful features. She wore a white, off-shoulder wrap crop top, black leggings, brown booties, and had a diamond stud in her nose. She had a black duffel bag slung over her shoulder, with a black bomber jacket resting over the top.

She gave him a once over, and smirked a bit. "That was a nice move back there," She commented. "Good thing you missed that guy."

The young man scoffed. "Hey, he walked out in front of my car. That wasn't my fault."

"Hey, I'm just giving an opinion," She responded, closing her car door and walking around to the back, leaning against the back of her car as they spoke. "I'm Dylan."

He looked her over, a sideways smile making it's way onto his face. "Topher," He reached for her hand, shaking it gently. "May I say, you look fine today," He said seductively.

Dylan chuckled. "That's pretty cheesy. How many girls has that actually worked on?"

Topher had proud look on his face. "Plenty. How do you feel about it?"

"Oh, I feel a few things about it," Dylan said, before looking at his car. "Wow, that's a really nice car. Must've cost you a fortune."

He shrugged. "I guess that depends on what you consider a fortune." Topher pushed his trunk closed and smirked. "So, since you're feeling it and so am I, why don't you come to a party tonight at Lake Hastings?"

Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Something tells me you usually invite girls you just met to parties, even if they haven't shown interest."

"Hey, I'm just trying to make some friends," Topher said, feigning innocence. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you're interested."

She had to resist rolling her eyes, and instead went for a simper on her face. "We'll see about that." She pulled her phone out of her pocket, looking at the time. "Look, my roommate is probably already at my room, so I should get going. She'd probably wondering where I am, especially considering all of my stuff besides this bag is in the room already."

Dylan began to walk off, when Topher called out to her. "I'll see you at the party," He said, causing her to chuckle and shake her head in amusement as she walked off towards her room.

\- PRED -

Another young woman walked through campus, carrying a black tote over her shoulder and a purple suitcase rolling behind her. She had pale skin, auburn hair, blue eyes, and stood at about 5'9. She wore a lacy black crop top, high-waisted jeans, and black heels.

She made her way up into her dorm hallway, walking upstairs until she made it up there. As soon as she did, she saw all of the doors open and a bunch of girls greeting each other.

As she walked down to her dorm, she waved and said hi to a few of the people she knew from her freshman year previously, and noticed how there were also a few groups of freshman up in the hall.

Walking into her room, she was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the dorms in this hall were suite style, and that she, her roommate, and the two girls next door would have their own bathroom, similarly to the other girls.

She immediately dropped her suitcase carelessly on the ground and practically fell into the she had made earlier before she went to get her suitcase, relishing in her soft bedspread.

"You seem right at home," A slightly Spanish accented voice said from behind her. She rolled over to see who she assumed was her roommate walking out of the bathroom and leaning back on a futon under the other bed, which was completely lofted. "I'm Brynley, but you can call me Bryn." Bryn had tan skin, brown hair, and light brown eyes. She wore a mid-thigh length maroon dress, black and tan wedges, and had silver bracelets on her wrists.

"I'm Riley," She leaned back on her bed, stretching out. "So, did you meet our bathroom buddies next door?" Riley asked, chuckling at herself a bit.

Bryn smiled. "I met one of them, her name's Sofia. She's pretty nice."

Riley nodded slightly. "That's cool. The other one's not there yet?"

"Well she's been there - her whole side of the room is set up, but she's not there now," Bryn responded.

"Okay, well, I have an idea," Riley smiled, sitting up and jumping off of the bed. "There's a party down at Hastings Lake tonight. It's one of those parties to get the new frat and sorority recruits interested, so you know it'll be good. The four of us should go."

"I can already tell we're gonna get along," Bryn smirked. "Come on, let's go see if Sofia wants to go,"

Riley followed Bryn into the next room, where they not only found Sofia, but also Dylan. The two girls were talking and getting to know each other when they noticed the two in the room.

Sofia gestured to them, "Dylan, this is Bryn. Bryn, Dylan." She introduced.

Bryn smiled. "Hey." She then gestured to Riley. "This is Riley,"

"Well," Riley clapped her hands together. "Now that we all know each other, I say we celebrate by going to the party at Hastings Lake tonight."

Dylan chuckled. "You know, I actually just got invited to that outside."

Riley's face lit up. "Oh, now we have to go! Who invited you?"

"Some guy named Topher." Dylan shrugged. "Trying to pick me up, basically."

"That's perfect," Riley said. "It's settled - we're going."

"Sounds good to me," Sofia smiled. "In the meantime, you guys want to go get some lunch or something? I haven't eaten all day."

Bryn nodded. "I'd be up for that,"

Riley and Dylan exchanged looks, before nodding and agreeing to go.

\- PRED -

The young man Topher almost hit with his car walked up the steps into the dorms, walking into his own and throwing his backpack onto the bed. He was a little more than surprised to find that the whole building of dorms were all suite style, and that he, his roommate, and the two next door would all share and have to clean their own bathroom.

He pulled his headphones out of his ears and smoothed out his shirt. He was about 5'7 and was wearing a blue baseball tee, black jeans, and white and blue tennis shoes. He also had a beanie on his head and dog tags around his neck.

As he began to unpack some of the things from his backpack, he heard talking from the next room. He shrugged and decided to go over to introduce himself, especially considering the four of them would be sharing a bathroom for the rest of the year.

He made his way through the bathroom and knocked on the wall as he came into the next room. When he did, he was surprised to see that Topher was standing in the room, along with David and another young man with brown hair, blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, and who stood at about 6'2. He was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and dark sneakers with a pair of black framed glasses resting over his eyes.

"Well, I was hoping not to see you again," He made a face as he looked at Topher. "You in this room?"

Topher scoffed. "Unfortunately, no. I'm your roommate." He looked him over distastefully, before sighing. "I'm Topher."

"Russ," He crossed his arms. "This is gonna be a long year," Russ muttered under his breath, before looking at David and his roommate, both of which looked a bit awkward as they watched them interact. "So, you three friends or something?"

The young man in the glasses raised an eyebrow lazily. "No, he just came in to introduce himself to us and invite us to the party down by Hastings Lake."

David chuckled awkwardly. "Also, I'm David and this is Kenny."

Russ nodded at them. "Nice to meet you." He said. "So, I didn't know there was a party tonight."

"Yeah, it's being thrown by the frats and sororities to help get new recruits and such," Kenny shrugged. "But, everyone is pretty much invited."

Topher cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah, you should come," He said, not really want him to go.

"I should, shouldn't I?" Russ smirked, sensing Topher's distaste in him coming, and wanting to go even more. "Look, I'm gonna get back to unpacking, but maybe I'll see you guys there."

"Alright," David gave him a smile as he walked back to his own room, while Topher sighed irritatedly.

\- PRED -

The four girls were sitting at a table at Galaxy Burger, one of the nearby restaurants to the college. They were laughing and chatting almost like they've known each other their whole lives.

"So, what's your guys' majors?" Bryn asked, looking around the table. "I'm in psychology. I think the human mind is really fascinating and I really want to help myself understand my own mind better."

Sofia was the first to speak up, "I'm in pre-med. I've wanted to become a doctor since I was really little,"

"Wow, you must be pretty smart," Dylan said, impressed. "I'm in theater; I really want to be an actress. They just look so pretty and are so talented.. it's a dream of mine."

"Well, I bet you're probably really talented," Sofia smiled. "And that you do a really good job at it."

Dylan blushed, a bit embarrassed from the attention. "Thanks," She returned the smile.

"I'm in history," Riley shrugged after everyone looked to her. "Thinking of becoming an archaeologist or something. I don't know, it was the only thing I was interested in school so I decided to get into it in college. That's not really the reason I wanted to go to college, but oh well."

Sofia frowned. "What do you mean?"

Riley chuckled. "I'm not really all that interested in school - never have been. I mean, it's always been pretty easy, but I'd rather get all I can out of life before I can't. Going to school and getting a job and such doesn't really appeal to me, but I know I have to so I will."

Dylan nodded in understanding. "I totally get what you mean. I'm a bit like that too and even waited a year to see if I could get any acting jobs without experience or schooling, but I never really made it. I know it doesn't seem like it matters too much in acting, but it would probably help and getting a degree would help you a ton too. Who knows, maybe you'll really enjoy your job."

"That's a bit unlikely, but maybe," Riley said, before noticing that their food was being put out on the counter for them to grab. "Our food is ready."

"I'll get it," Dylan offered. She stood up and walked over, thanking the man behind the counter for the food, and took the tray. Right before she went back to her table, however, her eyes caught on a young man standing next to her, waiting for his own food. He had light brown hair on his head and a bit of scruff on his chin and above his lip, blue eyes, pale skin, and stood at about 6'3. He was wearing a black zip-up hoodie over a yellow shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. "Isn't it a little warm to be wearing a jacket?"

The young man looked over at her, before looking at himself. "Oh, well I guess I'm just not used to the temperatures here." He said, his voice accented.

Dylan seemed pleasantly surprised by his voice. "Are you Australian?" She asked almost immediately after hearing it.

He chuckled. "Yeah," He smiled at her. "I'm glad you didn't ask if I was British." He joked lightly.

"I'm Dylan," She held her hand out to shake his after chuckling a bit with him.

He took her hand. "Rowan Thompson." He then looked her over. "Are you from around here?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm from a smaller town down south. More in mid-California than Northern."

"So what are you doing around here?" Rowan asked.

"College," Dylan gestured towards Hastings Hill University, which they could see down the street from where they were standing. "How about you? You're pretty far from home."

Rowan smiled, a small laugh emitting from him. "Yeah, I am. I'm actually going to Hastings Hill University as well - I've been going there for two years now."

"Oh, I'm freshman," Dylan laughed. "Well, I gotta get back to my friends but I hope to see you around."

He nodded. "Definitely." He was just about to get his food and leave when Dylan spoke again.

"Ooh, Rowan!" She exclaimed, catching his attention. "You should come to a party tonight at Hastings Lake."

"Yeah, maybe. I was actually just about to go there now," He smiled.

Dylan smiled back. "I hope to see you there." She said as she went back to her table and he left, looking back at her once before doing so.

\- PRED -

Kenny was walking across campus alone, trying to get into the campus bookstore before anyone caught up with him. He made it inside and walked past the various students trying to check out books, walking up to the loft above unnoticed.

The loft was a quite spacious area, and in the loft sat Iris, who was typing rapidly on her computer, which attached to several other large monitors that watched over the town.

He raised an eyebrow at her activity. "You are aware that there are a bunch of people downstairs trying to check out books, right?" He commented dryly.

Iris shot him a look. "You are aware that you should be working down there to help them out, right?" She mocked him.

"There's no need to be childish," Kenny sat down in a computer chair and slid over to her, looking up at the monitors. "What are you looking at?"

She sighed. "Nothing good. Demonic activity has risen drastically since just yesterday. I'm afraid we'll have an attack on our hands before we know it."

"Where is the activity coming from?" Kenny asked, looking over her notes spread out messily all over the table.

"Hastings Lake currently," Iris told him. "I think that's where our first attack will be."

Kenny stared at her in shock for a moment. "That's not good, Iris. There's gonna be a party there tonight."

Iris cursed under her breath. "Well, okay then I'm gonna go down there and scope out the area. You also might want to be at that party tonight. Something tells me that that might be a good time for them to try something against us."

He watched her get up and gather her purse and white blazer. "What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

"Monitor the situation and help people downstairs. There's nothing else you really can do," She sighed. "I'll be back soon. If I'm not back within the hour or so, close down shop and get up here to watch out and wait for my return."

Kenny breathed out, "Are you sure? I can go with you."

"I'm sure," Iris shook her head. "And I need you to stay here. If anything happens to me, I'd need you to take over. God knows that no other teams want anything to do with us." She muttered, before throwing him a pair of keys and rushing out of the loft.

\- PRED -

After lunch, the girls walked out of Galaxy Burger, all four of them content with the lunch they had just had and the new friendships that were beginning to form. While Riley and Bryn began to walk back to the campus, Sofia and Dylan were walking a bit behind and talking about doing something else.

When they were pretty much back to the school, the two had broken away from Riley and Bryn, walking towards the parking lot instead.

"Where are you guys going?" Bryn asked, she and Riley stopping to look to them.

Dylan gestured to the parking lot a few feet away. "We were thinking about going to check out the scene down by Hastings Lake. Do you wanna come? I have a car,"

Riley shook her head. "I'm okay. I was gonna go put my game face on and talk to some of the frat boys instead." She smirked a bit. "But you guys can go. I'll see you back at the dorms later."

"Actually, I don't really want to go either," Bryn shrugged. "Though I will come and check out those frat boys, as long as the sorority girls will be there too,"

The red-head nodded. "Always,"

Sofia smiled. "Alright. We'll see you guys later,"

Walking by them as they went to Dylan's car was David and Russ, who were also walking to the parking lot.

"So, I get that you were going to scope this out before I asked where this place was, but how exactly were you planning on getting there in the first place?" Russ asked, raising an eyebrow as they walked past the parking lot and out to the sidewalk, where David stopped. "Are you waiting for someone?"

David held up his phone with a chuckle. "Uber. Cheaper and easier than a cab."

Russ nodded. "I see." He looked out to the road as they waited. "Thanks for offering to show me where it was. I'm not really from around here - I probably would've gotten lost or something."

"Yeah, I know how that is. If someone would've shown me around a few years ago I would've had a much easier time out here." David said. "I'm from a while away, not in California or Nevada so it's pretty different being up here."

Russ breathed out heavily. "I feel you. I mean, I've heard things but they don't really seem that true. I don't know, maybe that's because we're not near the beach or LA but it really does seem like the stereotype over here. The only thing I can think of that's is true is how expensive it is to live here. I was thinking about living in an apartment but I couldn't because of the price."

David nodded. "Totally agree. I was gonna get one this year but still can't afford it." He said just as their Uber pulled up. "Well, I guess we're gonna get going now," David commented. "You should probably watch the way to get there. It's not too far, but it's easy to get lost."

"I'll keep that in mind," Russ said as the two got into the car.

\- PRED -

Rowan threw his garbage away and sat on the pier, looking out towards the large and peaceful lake and feeling content about being there. He took in a deep breath and listened to the light waves of water, ignoring some of the sounds from the nearby college students that were setting up for the party that night.

He thought back to how Dylan invited him and seriously wondered if he should go or not. She seemed nice enough and was definitely someone Rowan would consider hanging out with, though he wasn't sure he was really meant for the party scene.

A party included tons of people, loud music and noises, drinking, potentially drugs, and probably a lot of people looking to go home with another. Rowan wasn't really like that, and would rather get to know someone than dance, get drunk, and go home with them without actually knowing who they were.

As he continued to sit there and listen to the waves from the lake, he took notice of the frat boys and sorority girls making much more noise than they originally were.

He frowned and looked over towards them, standing up and leaning on the railing of the pier to get a better look. When he did, he was shocked to see a group of monsters attacking the students, hurting them and making them run in fear.

"What the hell?" He whispered to himself, watching the group.

These monsters had a black and blue checkered body and were about the size of an average guy. They had no eyes and a slit for a mouth, with silver horns coming out of the tops of their heads. They were armed with staffs in their hands that they were using to attack the civilians with.

After a few seconds of watching the attack and contemplating whether or not to run to safety, Rowan quickly decided that he was going to help them, and ran down the pier as fast as he could to get over there.

Meanwhile, Dylan and Sofia had just arrived at the lake, Dylan parking near the exit to the lot, before the two got out of her car and began their trek towards the water and the actual set up of the party.

As they got to the top of a sandy hill that led down to the actual lake, they saw the commotion going on and stopped in their tracks, frozen at the sight before them.

Sofia was the first to say anything, "Dylan, what are those things?" She asked, stuck staring at them.

"I have no idea," Dylan said back, also staring in shock.

"What should we do?"

Dylan didn't know what to say. "I..." She trailed off when she saw Rowan run down to the commotion and shove one of the creatures off of a girl before pushing her towards safety. She was stunned at his bravery, and further so when one of the monsters struck him from behind with it's staff. "Rowan!" She cried, taking off towards the beach.

"Dylan!" Sofia called after her, running down the sandy slope after her new friend.

Nearby, David and Russ got out of their Uber after paying, and heard Sofia's yell immediately after they got out and the driver drove off.

"What was that?" Russ asked as David walked up to the sandy slope Dylan and Sofia had been standing on, seeing the attack going on before them. "Holy shit!" Russ exclaimed. "What the hell is going on down there?!"

David shook his head in shock. "I have no idea, but we have to help them!" He began to run down the slope, as Russ stared after him like he was crazy, before the young man in blue grumbled under his breath. "Why am I getting sucked into things like this?" Then, Russ sprinted down the hill.

In the fight, Dylan had immediately grabbed the staff of the monster who Rowan had shoved and used it to block another hit coming towards him. He stared up in shock at her sudden appearance and watched as she pushed back against the monsters force, eventually making it fall back when she shoved back.

She turned around and helped him up. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," He said breathlessly, still shocked. "How did you get here?"

Dylan shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "Trying to scope out the party. Guess that didn't work out,"

Rowan shook his head. "Guess not,"

They both jumped back when one of the monsters jumped in between them and tried to attack them, Dylan trying to hold back against the monster's staff with her own, though it wasn't working too well. She fell to the ground, still holding the staff between herself and the monster. Rowan suddenly ripped the monster off of her, before helping her up.

Sofia ducked under a punch and though one of the monsters tackled her to the ground. She cried out and tried to kick it off of her, cringing as it held it's weapon above it's head, clearly getting ready to strike her.

"Sofia!" David yelled, punching the monster off of her and kicking it off to the side before pulling her to her feet.

They didn't have time for a reunion, however, when more of the monsters attacked them. David pushed Sofia out of the way of a hit and ducked out of the way himself. He jumped back from a punch coming towards him and punched the creature back in response, almost surprised when it actually fell back instead of getting back up and hammering on him.

Russ was the last one down onto the lake side, grumbling to himself about how this was a bad idea, immediately ducking out of the way when a staff was swung at him. He growled under his breath and kicked this creature back, before stepping down on it's chest to make sure it stayed down.

"This is such a bad idea," Russ muttered.

He saw how Dylan had grabbed a staff, and decided to do the same with the one he'd just threw down. He quickly had to use it when another one came at him, slamming the weapon hard into the side of the monster.

Unfortunately, he didn't see one coming at him from behind and was forced to drop his weapon when he was grabbed from behind and thrown towards the water, landing inches from the lake itself.

He groaned and sat up, holding his hands up to avoid getting a staff slammed on his head. Russ closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come. Surprisingly, the blow that was aimed at him never did come. He opened his eyes one at a time, and was shocked to see water from the lake shooting out at the monster from the exact spot his palm were facing.

"What?" He whispered in shock as the water flow diminished. He knelt down and touched the water carefully, wondering why nothing was happening now. When another monster came at him, he put his hands at the water and willed it to do what it had done before, and was shocked when it actually did. "That's impossible."

Sofia jumped back from another swing of a staff sent her way, and tripped walking back from the monster that was inching towards her. She fell to the ground and tried to scoot back from it, when her back hit a rock.

She put her hands out to catch the staff if it was swung at her again, and was instantly shocked when the creature began to back away from her and shriek in pain. She frowned deeply, before noticing how it's rubbery-looking skin was beginning to bend and steam.

The monster continued to cry out in pain, and Sofia put her hands down as the threat didn't seem to be coming anymore. The instant she did, it stopped burning and seemed angrier than before.

Shocked, she put her hands up again an concentrated, watching as the monster combusted into flames as she stared on, looking at her hands in an almost fearful way.

Rowan was struck back by a punch to the face, and tried to kick the creature coming at him back, to no avail. He put his arms up to protect himself against the strikes he was expecting, when a sudden strike of lighting came down and hit the monster in the chest, making it fly back.

He stared at the event in disbelief and looked up at the sky, finding it clear of any clouds and noting that it wasn't raining or anything. He put his arms down and looked at his hands, before looking up at a monster running towards him.

His hands went up immediately, palms pointing to the creature, and again, a yellow strike of lighting came out of nowhere and struck it.

"That's insane," Rowan muttered, staring and still disbelieving.

Dylan saw what he did and found herself frozen in shock from what she had just witnessed. It seemed impossible that anyone could do anything like that, but, then again, she also found herself fighting monsters, which is something she thought would be impossible as well.

Because of her shock, she was suddenly taken down by a strike to her side, wincing in pain as she fell into the sand. She looked up and thought about what she had just seen.

She put her hands up, and all of a sudden, the monster dropped it's weapon and tried to back away from her. Instead of producing lightning like Rowan had, she noticed a frost forming over the monster's body. After a few seconds, it was completely frozen.

"Oh my god," She whispered, grabbing the staff she had dropped when she was knocked down and slowly stood up again.

David was thrown through the air and cringed as he expected to hit the ground hard. Instead, he found the air almost cushioning his landing and making it less painful, which was a bit strange to him.

Ignoring that, he tried to push himself back to his feet, but was stopped when one of the creatures kicked him in the chest, knocking him back a few feet.

He put his hands in front of his body, preparing for another hit - though it was one that never came. He looked up in time to see the monster suddenly fly back through the air and land far out into the lake without any prompting whatsoever.

"No way," David frowned, before putting his palms out at another monster, causing it to also fly back without anything touching it.

David was shocked and was about to stand up when the other four young adults with him were thrown over by the monsters and landed in a heap around him. The five laid on the ground, waiting for a strike from the advancing creatures.

Suddenly, someone flipped over the group of monsters holding a blaster in hand. It was Iris, and she stood strong in front of the five. "Back off!" She growled, pointing her blaster and rapidly shooting down all of the remaining monsters.

When she was done, she turned back to see the five young adults helping each other up and staring at her with not only shocked expressions, but confused ones as well. She had no idea really what to say, and before she could think of anything, David spoke up.

"What the hell is going on, and who are you?" He ground out, the five obviously unsure of whether or not to trust her.

She held her blaster pointed at the ground, and looked them over. "I'm Iris Skomal - I work at Hastings Hill University. Trust me when I say I'm one of the good guys. I know this is confusing and seems impossible, but allow me to explain. Come to the campus, get into the bookstore, and I'll explain everything."

The group was silent for a few moments. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" Russ asked, crossing his arms.

"You don't," Iris said honestly. "But why would I have saved you if I wasn't? And, how would I know about those powers you just displayed if I wasn't?" They didn't know what to say. "Just come with me and I promise I'll tell you everything you want to know."

The five of them exchanged looks, before they all nodded. "Alright, let's go."

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders:** Iris explains to the five about the demons and rangers, and they're all shocked to find out that the party at the lake will still be happening, prompting them to check it out. Meanwhile, Riley and Topher quickly find themselves involved in the fight.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Defend The Earth Part II

 **So, because this will be a two-parter, I will be breaking away from my updating schedule (which is PRGG, then PRER, PRRF, and PRED in that order) to update this again next to keep the parts together, since I don't like leaving on cliffhangers for too long.**

 **Also, I really hope you guys liked how I portrayed your characters so far!**

 **Here's the list of the next five chapters after the one above. These are subject to change as the story continues.**

 **Ep 3: Under Control -** No specific character focus.

 **Ep 4: Pains Of A Leader -** David focused.

 **Ep 5: Normal -** Dylan focused.

 **Ep 6: Cowardice -** Russ focused.

 **Ep 7: Held Down -** Rowan focused.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	3. Ep 2: Defend The Earth Part II

**Here's part two. I'm really glad you all are liking this so far, and I hope you continue to as the story goes on!** **I'm sorry it took me a while to get this out - I've been going through some things in my personal life. I'm back now though and I'm so glad to have this chapter out!**

 **Also, keep in mind that this story and Emergency Responders are part of the same universe, which means that superhumans are not abnormal in this society and live amongst regular humans. I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but it'll be explained in this one and more in the future.**

* * *

 **Last time on Power Rangers: Earth Defenders**

David was shocked and was about to stand up when the other four young adults with him were thrown over by the monsters and landed in a heap around him. The five laid on the ground, waiting for a strike from the advancing creatures.

Suddenly, someone flipped over the group of monsters holding a blaster in hand. It was Iris, and she stood strong in front of the five. "Back off!" She growled, pointing her blaster and rapidly shooting down all of the remaining monsters.

When she was done, she turned back to see the five young adults helping each other up and staring at her with not only shocked expressions, but confused ones as well. She had no idea really what to say, and before she could think of anything, David spoke up.

"What the hell is going on, and who are you?" He ground out, the five obviously unsure of whether or not to trust her.

She held her blaster pointed at the ground, and looked them over. "I'm Iris Skomal - I work at Hastings Hill University. Trust me when I say I'm one of the good guys. I know this is confusing and seems impossible, but allow me to explain. Come to the campus, get into the bookstore, and I'll explain everything."

The group was silent for a few moments. "How do we know you're telling the truth?" Russ asked, crossing his arms.

"You don't," Iris said honestly. "But why would I have saved you if I wasn't? And, how would I know about those powers you just displayed if I wasn't?" They didn't know what to say. "Just come with me and I promise I'll tell you everything you want to know."

The five of them exchanged looks, before they all nodded. "Alright, let's go."

 **Now**

By the time they had arrived back at Hastings Hill University, the bookstore was already closed, with only the lights on up in the loft. Iris walked up to the door with the five young adults behind her, all of them a bit confused and shocked to say the least.

Iris unlocked the door and let them inside, before coming in herself and re-locking the door. She led them up the stairs and into the loft, where Kenny was sitting in a computer chair in front of the monitors. He turned around quickly at the sound of her approaching and had his mouth open to speak, though he stopped himself when he saw the five behind her.

He blinked a few times as he stared at them, before clearing his throat. "So, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that we need cameras all over the city?" He quipped.

Iris chuckled. "Yeah, and thanks for volunteering to do so," She patted him on the shoulder as she walked up to her desk and put her things down as the group of five looked around the loft.

It was a quite spacious area, not only with a desk and a bunch of monitoring computers, but also having a large mat in the middle of the room for sparring and plenty of weapons and training supplies around. There was also a small kitchen area in the corner, with an island with chairs and a rather large dining table near a couch and relaxing chairs. Near the kitchen area were two doors, one leading to the bathroom and one leading to a room with multiple beds and medical supplies.

"What is this place?" David was the first to speak up, taking a few steps forward as he looked around the room.

"This is my loft," Iris told him, her hands on her hips and a proud expression on her face. "This is a place where you guys can train or hang out or whatever, as long as you accept what I'm about to tell you."

Dylan looked away from some of the weights on the side of the room and looked at her. "We can train? What for?"

Iris sighed and reached behind her desk, opening a cabinet and pulling out a wooden box, before closing the cabinet and crossing the room, setting the box down on the dining table. She gestured for the five to come and sit with her, which they reluctantly did.

"What's going on?" Russ crossed his arms, impatiently waiting for Iris to speak.

She gave him a look, before opening the box to reveal ten silver rings, all with different colored gems in the center of the ring. The group exchanged strange looks, but allowed her to speak. "I know what you're thinking, but these aren't just rings. These are morphers that, when activated, will turn you into a group of power rangers,"

While four out of five of the group seemed to be shocked and understand what she was talking about, Rowan frowned a bit. "Power rangers? Like those superheroes that fight monsters?"

Dylan looked to him. "They don't have power rangers in Australia, do they?"

"No, but I believe I've seen them on the news," Rowan responded. "Never firsthand, though."

Iris nodded. "Okay, that's fine. You don't need to know about them firsthand for this - you'll learn just fine." She looked around the table. "The rest of you know about them, right?" They all nodded.

Sofia cleared her throat softly. "So, what does this mean for us? I mean, are we power rangers?"

"If you'll accept these morphers, you will be," Iris said.

When Rowan went to take a ring, Dylan stopped him. "Wait. I think we should hear the whole story before jumping into this, right?" She looked at the other four with her.

Russ took in a deep breath. "She makes a good point. I think there are some unanswered questions that need to be addressed."

Iris sighed. "Alright, I can take it. Ask anything you want."

"What's with those powers?" David asked, glancing at his hands briefly. "I mean, how could I make a monster just fly off to the side without touching it? Are we, like, superhumans or something?"

"Yes, you are, actually," Iris nodded. "You all know how superhumans and regular humans coexist, so I'm hoping this isn't a big enough shock to send you out that door and away from here. Your powers revolve around the elements and..."

Kenny interrupted her from across the room, "And some of your powers are more useful than others." He commented, causing some of the rangers to frown.

Iris was quick to correct that, "Only in certain situations. For example, Russ would have an easier time near the water than Sofia since he controls water and she controls fire,"

"Speaking of powers," David looked in the box. "There are ten rings in this box, but only five of us. What are those for?"

She gestured to the rings as she spoke of them, "Yes, that's true. Two of these rings - the green and orange ones - aren't ready to be used yet, and the gold ring isn't currently available..."

Kenny spoke up again, "Because it doesn't work,"

Iris glared at him. "Will you let me speak?" She ground out, before turning back to the five. "There are a few kinks to work out with the gold ring, but we're working on it."

"What about the purple and black ones?" Dylan pointed out.

"They work," Iris told her. "I just haven't found any candidates for these two yet. To be a candidate, like you five, they have to have the powers of the ranger they will be performing as. The purple and black rangers both control darkness."

Sofia frowned. "They both control the same thing? And it's darkness? Isn't that bad?"

"No, its not bad, I can assure you of that," Iris quickly said. "And yes, they do control the same thing. The two gems were fused together at the edge when I found them and pulled them apart. I assume it has something to do with the two rangers being a pair or maybe that darkness is just a difficult power to master. Truth be told, I don't exactly know the reason - I found the gems, didn't create them. I do know that if someone were to master that power.. it could be very useful."

Russ nodded at all of this, "Okay, this is useful and such, but I think a more important question is, what were those things we fought?"

Iris took a deep breath, "Demons, led by their overlord, Grifyth."

David made a face. "Is he.. the devil or something?"

"Closest thing you'll find on this Earth," Iris muttered. "I assume he sent them here to start his invasion. His army is who you'll be fighting. Those low level demons you fought were called Ubel, and they're the most basic form of demons you'll fight."

Kenny cleared his throat. "There are also monsters and knights - monsters being above the Ubel, and knights being above them. Then, you get to Grifyth and his wife, Riona,"

Russ raised an eyebrow, "His wife?"

He nodded. "Yep. She's about the strength of a knight - definitely not as strong as he is, but she makes due."

"So," Iris patted the side of the box she was holding. "What do you say? Will you help out?"

"I will," Sofia smiled softly as Iris handed her a silver ring with a pink gem in the center. When she put it on, the ring had a flash of light go across it, signalling it's readiness for use. "Wow," She whispered.

Rowan looked at the ring, before nodding slightly. "I can do it," He said, taking the ring with the yellow gem and slipping it on his finger, a light going across his similarly to Sofia's.

"Alright," Russ sighed, holding his hand out for the ring with the blue gem. "I'll do it too,"

"I'm in," Dylan was handed a ring with a white gem in the middle.

Finally, David took a deep breath and held his hand out, the ring with the red gem in the middle being given to him. He put it on, "Wow." He muttered.

Russ cleared his throat. "So, how does this work, anyways?"

Iris smiled, "I'm glad you asked. You put your hand in a fist and throw it to the air, yelling out, 'Earth Defenders, Save The People!' and then you'll be morphed."

"Who's in charge?" Dylan asked, twisting her ring, watching as the light reflected off of it. "Isn't there always a leader?"

"David," Iris nodded. "He's the leader. You, Dylan, are the second-in-command. So, when David is unable to fight, you lead." When she said this, David had an indescribable look on his face, though it definitely wasn't one of unhappiness towards the position.

Dylan also reacted, raising her head at this answer, a bit shocked. While she didn't mind this position at all - in fact, she was pleasantly surprised - but she really didn't expect to be put there. She awkwardly smiled as the other members of the team looked at her. "Awesome," Was all she could think to say.

They all sat there in silence for a few moments, the new rangers looking around and thinking about what had just happened, when Kenny spoke up, "Hey, you guys got attacked down by Lake Hastings, right?"

Sofia nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"There's a party down there tonight," Kenny responded, looking down at his phone. "I just got a text from one of my friends saying that no matter what happens, and despite what did happen, the party's still happening."

Russ scoffed, "Are they complete idiots or something?"

Kenny shrugged. "It's the first frat and sorority party of the year - at this school, they wouldn't cancel even if someone died."

"That's a bit of an overstatement," Iris rolled her eyes. "But, this is really bad news. If Grifyth finds out about all of the people going over to this one spot, he'll definitely send an attack. You five have to go to that party and keep watch; just make sure you don't use your powers in front of others."

David looked at his teammates, "Alright, I think we can do that." He said as they nodded.

"So, what do we do for now?" Rowan asked.

"Go back to your rooms or apartments and rest and get ready," Iris advised them. "Be careful, too. You never know when an attack could happen,"

The five new rangers nodded and slowly exited the room, leaving Kenny and Iris alone. "You think they can do it?" Kenny asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Iris crossed her arms and sighed. "I hope so."

 **\- Cue Opening -**

"So, where were you guys?" Riley asked from the bathroom as she pulled a short, dark purple dress over her body. She got it up enough and was fixing the top, while also looking into Dylan and Sofia's room. While she wouldn't have cared about getting dressed in her own room, her curiosity got the better of her about Dylan and Sofia's whereabouts before, especially considering how long they were gone. "Were you hanging out with that cute guy from Galaxy Burger?"

Dylan scoffed a bit as she put on her own outfit - a short, tight white dress that zipped up the front, which she was given by Riley. Sofia and Bryn, on the other hand, were wearing their own clothes, Bryn saying her outfit was always one she partied in, and Sofia only deciding to change her blouse to a pink crop top.

"You could say that," Dylan told her, walking up to the door of her and Sofia's dorm room, looking at herself in the long mirror she had hung up on the back of it. "And he is pretty cute, isn't he?"

Riley could see her from where she was standing and looked her over. "Damn, you look hot," She chuckled, complimenting her friend as she slipped into her shoes. "So, you've only been here a day and already have two guys after you? Wow, you're just killing it."

Dylan smirked. "Yeah, maybe," She laughed.

"Who are you going for?" Riley asked, walking into the room. Only she and Dylan were in the room - Sofia being in the hallway with Bryn, talking to some of the girls on the floor. "Like, do you want the parking lot guy or Galaxy Burger guy? Or both, because that's acceptable too."

The white ranger shrugged. "I don't know. Topher, the parking lot guy, he's kind of a womanizer dick, and I learned that from spending five or ten minutes with him."

Riley nodded slowly. "Okay, so no on Topher?"

Dylan sighed. "Well, maybe not; he might have another side to him. Rowan, the Galaxy Burger guy, he's really nice but kind of quiet and we come from two different worlds. He's from halfway across the world and seems to have this amazing, perfect life and I'm from a small town south of here and have a plain, if not boring and strange, life."

"It can't be this hard to choose between two guys you don't even really know," Riley put a hand on one of her hips. "Go to the party and hang out with them, then you can figure out who you wanna sleep with."

"You think so?" Dylan asked, rubbing her arm with slightly nervous expression on her face. "It won't be that hard?"

Riley shook her head. "Why would it be?"

"I don't know. What if I actually like one of them? Like, I wanna be with them in a relationship and stuff?" Dylan responded.

"Relationships are overrated," Riley chuckled. "They never really work out. I mean, 50% of marriages end in divorce or something like that. Are your parents still together?"

Dylan looked down awkwardly. "No, but they never really were in the first place." She said, making Riley raise an eyebrow. "A one night stand with a friend kind of thing. My mom was in a relationship and they didn't really talk after that so they never got together."

Riley nodded. "So, does your mom have anyone now?"

"I don't know," Dylan shrugged. "I haven't seen her since a few months after she got out of prison." She cleared her throat. "So, what about your parents? They together?"

"No," Riley crossed her arms. "My dad left and it wrecked my mom. It didn't really make sense to me why anyone would want to go through that, so I decided that I never would. I mean, I've had plenty of one night stands and stuff, but I've never had a relationship."

"Since we're being honest," Dylan sat down with Riley on a futon she had set up under her lofted bed. "Neither have I. It's not that I don't want one or anything, but it kind of scares me to have a commitment like that and to be.. loved like that. I used to have this friend with benefits and we acted like we were in a non-exclusive relationship but every time he tried to move forward, I pushed away. Eventually, we just stopped hanging out. Besides that, I don't think I've ever been close to a real relationship."

Riley pursed her lips. "Yeah," She trailed off, not really knowing what else to say. She figured she would probably come off a bit awkwardly and rude by not responding to Dylan's confession, but she didn't really know what else to say and didn't put the effort in to think of something. "So, you wanna go hang with Bryn and Sofia?" She asked after a moment of silence, standing up from her seat. "The party won't start for another hour or so."

Dylan looked at her, a bit hurt, but the expression was quickly wiped off of her face and replaced with a smile and nod. "Sure."

\- PRED -

Russ strolled through the bathroom he and Topher shared with David and Kenny, poking his head into the next room, where he found David sitting at his desk, setting some things up and still unpacking.

"Hey," Russ greeted, walking in as David turned around. "This whole thing is crazy, huh?" He commented. "The ranger thing?"

David scoffed. "You can say that again," He shook his head in disbelief. "It's unreal. I never would've expected something like this to happen." He looked up and saw Russ standing there awkwardly. "So, what's up?"

Russ shrugged a bit. "I don't know. I guess I might be trying to get away from the asshole I'm sharing a room with."

The red ranger chuckled. "He can't be that bad."

"He almost ran me over earlier," Russ muttered. "I mean, yeah, I don't really know anything about the guy, but things I do know aren't exactly making us best friends. You got lucky with Kenny. I don't really know him either, but anything's better Topher."

David smirked. "Hey, who knows? Maybe you two will end up friends."

Russ snorted. "Yeah, when pigs fly."

"Never know," David commented. "We just fought off a bunch of demons at Lake Hastings and are now power rangers. If that can happen, anything can."

"Yeah, I guess." Russ sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. "So, we gotta go to that party, huh?"

"You seem like you don't wanna go," David looked him over, noticing the look of discontent on his face.

Russ looked down at the ground for a moment. "Yeah, no, not really. Parties are cool and all but everyone's drinking and.. drinking," He trailed off. "I just don't really like being around alcohol."

David frowned. "Why not? Something happen?"

"You could say that," Russ nodded. "I don't really wanna talk about. It's personal, you know?"

The red ranger made a face. "I know how that feels. If you ever _do_ wanna talk about it, you can."

Russ smiled slightly, and the room almost lapsed into an awkward silence when there was a knock at the door, and Sofia poked her head in through a small crack she opened. She smiled at the two, and, at David's nod, opened the door and came in, before shutting it behind her.

"Hey guys," She said brightly. "You getting to know each other?"

David made a so-so gesture. "Yeah, a little. What's going on?"

Sofia shrugged. "Nothing, really. I was hanging out with Dylan and our 'neighbors' Riley and Bryn, but I decided to come down here and see what's up with you guys."

"Why?" Russ had a strange look on his face. "Didn't fit in or something?"

She chuckled. "No, I fit in just fine. I just didn't want you guys to be all alone or anything. I would've felt bad if I left you guys out of the mix."

"That's nice of you," David gave her a smile.

"Aww, thanks," Sofia smiled back. "So, do you guys want to come up and kill some time with us before the party?"

David nodded. "Sure, wanna come?" He asked Russ.

"Yeah, why not?" Russ chuckled, following them upstairs.

\- PRED -

Later that night, Rowan stood near the edge of all of the people at the party, drinking out of a red cup and waiting for the others. Since he lived in an apartment and not a dorm room, he felt a bit disconnected from the others, but he just shrugged that feeling off and waited for them patiently.

"Hey," He heard Dylan say, and he turned to see her walking down a sand dune to get over to him, the others a bit away, talking and such.

Rowan looked her over and smiled. "Hey. You looked great."

She smiled back. "Thanks. Riley, one of my.. well, sort of roommates, let me borrow it."

"'Sort of roommates?'" He repeated, making her chuckle.

"Well, Sofia's my roommate, but we share a bathroom with Riley and Bryn, who are next door. The reason I call them roommates is because the bathroom connects our rooms," Dylan explained. "But you're lucky to have an apartment. Dorms are pretty small."

"Eh," Rowan shrugged. "Not really. I like the privacy and such, but it's kind of.. empty with just me, you know?"

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, I sort of know what you mean. My house always had this room that we would rent out to family or people and when no one was there it always felt empty."

"Did you like having people live there?" Rowan asked, noticing the look on her face.

She shrugged. "Yes and no. I know we needed the money or whatever, but not at the cost of our happiness. My grandpa was one of those people who likes to help everyone, no matter how many times they screw him, or anyone else, over. The people he would let live in there weren't good and it was stressful, but it's over now, so I guess it doesn't really matter anymore."

Rowan frowned. "Just because it's in the past doesn't mean it doesn't matter. If it hurt it hurt. There's no changing that."

Dylan scoffed slightly. "Well, I know that but my grandpa doesn't really understand that so it doesn't really make it easier to continue dwelling on it."

"That's..." Rowan was cut off when Topher yelled to Dylan from behind.

"Hey!" Topher walked over, two drinks in hand. He was sipping on one and handed the other to her. "I see you decided to come."

Dylan nodded, throwing her drink in a nearby trashcan. "Yeah, I did." At his look of bewilderment, she explained, "It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't really know you so it's better to be safe then sorry. If I have a drink I'd probably have to get it myself. Plus, I don't really drink that much."

Topher snorted. "Why not?" He asked, as if it was the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard of. "Drinking is awesome!"

"Alcoholism runs in the family," She said a bit awkwardly, making him scoff.

He shrugged. "Well, whatever. Doesn't mean we can't still have a good time," He put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a seductive look.

At this motion, Dylan raised an eyebrow and Rowan looked between them with a confused look on his face. Dylan looked over at him, and so did Topher, just noticing the other young man. Topher then looked back to Dylan. "I didn't know you brought a date."

Dylan looked surprised and was speechless for a moment. "Well, I didn't really. I don't really know either of you very well, but Rowan and I were having a conversation when you interrupted."

"Are you telling me I should leave or something?" Topher crossed his arms, looking a bit offended.

She sighed. "Well, no. You can..." She trailed off, before catching Riley's eye and gesturing for her to come over. "This is my friend Riley," She introduced. "Riley, this is Rowan and Topher." Dylan gestured to them respectively.

Riley raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Wow, that's crazy." She chuckled, looking Topher up and down. "I think you are just the tallest person I've ever met in my life."

"Is that a good thing?" Topher smirked, his attention suddenly focused on Riley, though it was clear he still had an interest in Dylan.

"Of course," Riley smirked back, a seductive look of her own on her face. "This is impressive. You wanna go get another drink with me?"

"Definitely. See you soon, Dylan," Topher shot her a flirtatious smirk before walking off with Riley.

Dylan chuckled before turning back to Rowan. "They are definitely something."

"Yeah," Rowan had a look on his face that Dylan couldn't decipher. "So, I know Riley's your friend, but who was that?"

"Topher," She said. "Some guy I met in the parking lot earlier who asked me to come to the party. I didn't really know if I wanted to go with him because I know his type, but maybe he wouldn't be that bad if I got to know him." Noticing the lasting look on his face, she continued. "Hey, just keep in mind that, even if we're here as rangers, I invited in the first place. I won't ditch you or anything, if that's what you're worried about. You're a really cool guy."

Rowan smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah," Dylan smiled back. "I'd rather hang out with you than him, just from what I can see so far about both of you. Riley will handle him; from what I've seen and heard, she's like the nicer, girl version of him."

"Wouldn't they be hooking up before the end of the night, then?" Rowan pointed out, making Dylan frown slightly.

She made a face. "Oh my god, you're right. I just set them up, didn't I?"

"Not if Grifyth sends a monster." Rowan commented. "Which I'm surprised hasn't happened yet."

Dylan looked around. "Yeah, me too. Maybe he decided to back off or doesn't really care."

As if on cue, there was a loud explosion and screams began to erupt from the party goers. The two instantly turned their heads at the sound of the chaos, and were suddenly joined by David, Sofia, and Russ. They all exchanged looks and ran over.

There was a monster attacking the college students that had black and red skin and a sword in hand. The monster, Acacia, as it was proclaiming to them, was a bit bigger than a regular human and looked menacing.

"Hey!" David yelled, attracting Acacia's attention. "Stop!"

Acacia stared at them before slowly walking to stand in front of them. "What do we have here?" It said in a feminine voice. "A couple of humans thinking they're tough enough to handle me?"

"We are tough enough to handle you," David stood his ground, hoping to himself that he was right as he looked at his teammates. "You ready?"

"Ready." They nodded.

"Earth Defenders, Save The People!" The five threw their fists into the air and found a sudden surge of energy go through them as they morphed.

"Red Air Defender!" David announced.

"White Ice Defender!" Dylan exclaimed.

"Blue Water Defender!" Russ called out.

"Yellow Lightning Defender!" Rowan yelled.

"Pink Fire Defender!" Sofia cried.

David looked down at his suit. He had on a red suit with a red and black sash going across his chest, red and black gloves, and white boots. He had a gold belt and a red helmet. On his belt was a sword and a blaster on his right and left sides respectively. Russ and Rowan's suits looked similar to his, only in their respective colors.

Dylan and Sofia's suits also looked similar to his, only with a few differences. Their suits had thigh high white boots that acted like the fabric of the suit for full range of motion and they had waist high belts, unlike the guys, who had hip high belts. Under their belts were skirts that matched their individual colors.

They all admired themselves and each other for a moment, as Acacia stared at them in shock. "The power rangers?! That's impossible!"

"Not so much," Dylan pulled out her sword, smirking a bit under her helmet as they all ran forward.

Acacia growled and immediately slashed her sword out as they ran towards her, making them all fly back to the ground. The demon scoffed. "And you call yourself rangers."

She ran up to attack David, but he ducked back and pulled his sword out and held it up, blocking a hit that could've easily killed him. With her sword on his, David took the opportunity and shoved it and her back, before getting up to his feet. He ran towards her and made a move to slash her with his sword, but he was blocked and shoved back to the ground by Acacia.

Dylan got up and jumped over David as he hit the ground, pulling out her own sword in the process. She managed to hit Acacia with her sword once, but was punched in the stomach. She backed up a bit, wincing slightly in pain when Rowan jumped in with her, blocking her from getting hit with a sword that was coming at her. She looked up and watched as Acacia growled under her breath and elbowed him hard in the ribs, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Rowan!" The white ranger ran back in, attempting to throw a hard punch at the demon's face. Her punch never landed, however, and her hand was twisted to the side, making her fall to her knee.

Acacia leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You five are nothing compared to me. You'll never live up to your potential." She said, before wrenching Dylan's arm forward and flipping her to the ground.

Russ and Sofia ran into the fight, Sofia shoving Acacia away from Dylan and Russ slashing his sword down, catching the demon's arm. Acacia hissed slightly and clutched her arm for a moment before kicking Russ down. Sofia ran towards her, trying to kicked her back but her foot was caught by Acacia and used to throw her off to the side.

"Who's next?" Acacia smirked.

From a little ways away, Riley and Topher were walking back to the party from the parking lot, unaware of what had just happened. When they made their way to the top of a sand dune, they could see the fight going on. They watched as the rangers fought hard and made a few good hits on the demon, but nothing seemed to work in really destroying it.

"What the hell is that?" Topher asked, dropping his red cup in shock.

Riley blinked a few times to make sure that what she was seeing was real. "I think those are power rangers fighting a monster." She responded, before they both felt a strange sensation overcome them at the same time. "Okay, that was weirder than that."

Topher nodded in agreement. "Do you know what that was?" He asked.

"I do," A voice said from behind them, and they turned to see Iris stand there with the purple and black rings in her hands. "You two are meant to be rangers."

The two exchanged looked. "Okay, who the hell are you?" Topher crossed his arms, looking her up and down distrustfully.

Iris sighed. "My name is Iris and I gave those rangers their powers. They are losing right now in this fight, and you two need to take these." She shoved the purple ring into Riley's hands and the black one into Topher's. "Now, here's what you're gonna do..."

Meanwhile, the rangers were still losing their fight, but were standing their ground, at least. They were all slashed back by Acacia, and tried to get back up, but found Acacia standing over them with a sword.

"Now, which little ranger should go first?" She asked, pointing the sword at each of them.

"How about us?" A voice yelled from the side, and they all turned to see Riley and Topher bounding down a sand dune and running towards them.

Dylan saw them and yelled to them, "Hey, you guys need to get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

Acacia smirked. "So, two more little humans want to play?"

"Sure do," Riley smirked. "Ready?"

Topher nodded. "Ready."

They threw their fists into the air, feeling that same rush of energy go through them as the others. "Earth Defenders, Save The People!"

"Purple Darkness Defender!" Riley exclaimed.

"Black Darkness Defender!" Topher yelled.

Acacia and the rangers were shocked to say the least. "So, two new ranger brats want to join in for a beating?" Acacia growled. "Well you can enjoy it with your friends!"

They ran towards her, pulling out their swords and trying to get in an attack at the same time to throw her off. The demon blocked Topher's sword, but not Riley's, letting it slash through her body. Acacia cried out in pain and shoved them back a bit before slashing them to the ground with the others.

The seven rangers made their way to their feet, standing strong against Acacia, who was moving towards them.

Acacia breathed heavily clutching the wound in her side. "Now I can destroy all of you together."

"Shall we?" David looked at his teammates with a smirk under his helmet, his hands glowing red as they could see air going up his sword. They nodded with smirks as well.

Topher and Riley ran in first, their swords covered with a cold darkness, slashing it through Acacia's weakened body. Sofia ran in next, slashing through with fire on her sword, then Rowan with lighting, Russ with water, Dylan with ice, and finally David with air. They all stood behind the demon as she sparked and fell to her knees.

"This isn't over yet!" Acacia yelled to them. "You may have beat me, but you'll never beat Grifyth." She promised them as she fell to the ground, exploding before their eyes.

The rangers watched in shock, Topher and Riley especially. "Okay, that was intense," Russ commented.

Riley nodded. "Yeah, that was great! There was such a rush of adrenaline!"

The other five rangers turned to face Riley and Topher, who looked at them back. "How did you get those powers?" Dylan asked, looking them over.

Topher shrugged. "Some lady named Iris gave them to us."

"She did?" David asked. "When?"

"Just a few minutes ago," Iris answered for herself as she and Kenny walked towards them. "I decided to come down here to watch and see for myself, and good thing I did. You five might not have done it without them." She looked around. "You can demorph, by the way."

The seven demorphed, and Riley and Topher were more than a little shocked to see who the other rangers were. They began to talk over each other in shock when Kenny interrupted them. "Look, we can do reunions later, but for now, let's just get back to the loft and explain everything to them," He gestured to Riley and Topher. "Iris only gave them a quick run down. I also need to check you guys for injuries and such."

They all nodded, seeming content with that decision. The rangers all walked ahead, talking amongst themselves as Iris and Kenny walked a bit behind them. "So, now that you've seen it, do you think they can do it?" Kenny asked lowly, making sure the rangers couldn't hear them.

Iris looked at the rangers and nodded slightly. "I think it'll take a bit of training and work but I think they can do it, especially with Riley and Topher's help. I think they're a great team and I think they could do great things. What about you? What do you think?"

"I think we'll see. Grifyth isn't gonna be happy once he finds out about the rangers, but they definitely something going for them and we always have the other rings for more rangers to help out." Kenny said, before taking in a deep breath. "I also think I have faith in them to do it."

"I think so too," Iris smiled.

* * *

 **Next time on Power Ranger Earth Defenders:** The rangers go through a bit of training and learn some more about each other and the threats they're facing.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Learning The Ropes

 **So, in this chapter you may notice the rangers talking a bit more and getting to know each other, and they will also be doing that a lot in the next chapter. The next chapter is just gonna be a filler with some more explanations and the rangers getting a bit into their backstories and bonding with each other.**

 **Anyways, I wanted to let you guys know that, while I said I have a specific updating schedule (which I still do), the next update is going to be a bit different with a mass update to all of my stories as a present to you guys on my birthday. I'm really going to try to do this, but keep in mind that I may not have time or real life may catch up to me.**

 **If I am able to do it, all four of my Original Power Ranger stories will be updated two weeks from now (November 14th, to be exact) sometime during the day. So, this does mean that I may not update any of my stories until then, but it'll be worth it if I can do it.**

 **Here is the lineup for the next five chapters.**

 **Ep 4: Pains Of A Leader -** David focused.

 **Ep 5: Normal -** Dylan focused.

 **Ep 6: Cowardice -** Russ focused.

 **Ep 7: Held Down -** Rowan focused.

 **Ep 8: Firepower -** Sofia focused.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	4. Ep 3: Learning The Ropes

**Here's the next chapter guys! This is mostly going to be a filler with some bonding and more information about the rangers and Grifyth. I hope you guys enjoy it!**

* * *

Russ groaned as he was thrown back by an Ubel, which was standing above him. He kicked it away from him and got back to his feet, shaking his head at their situation.

It was a rather cold day, and it was pouring rain all over town, so much that parts of Hastings Hill were already flooded, and many other parts had flood warnings out. There was thunder claps and lightning strikes above them, and all of the seven rangers were out on the campus, fighting off a group of Ubel.

None of the rangers were really sure why they wanted to attack on a day like this, mostly because there were no people out to attack. Everyone was inside to stay dry and warm, so it didn't make much sense that Grifyth would send his army out to attack on this day.

David jumped back to avoid getting punched but ended up being grabbed by another and flipped over it's head. He landed hard on the wet ground, wincing under his helmet. He looked up to see a few Ubel running at him and used his power to make them fly back through the air and hit the ground.

A hand came into his line of vision and he looked up to see Sofia standing above him, offering her hand to help him up. He took it and smiled. "Hey, thanks," David told her.

"Anytime," She nodded.

Sofia then quickly ran over and pulled an Ubel off of a building and slammed it into the ground. She stabbed another as it charged towards her and threw it off of her sword when it got stuck.

She saw a few of them coming towards her and thought about using her power for a moment, but decided not to due to the rain. Instead she slashed her sword at them and knocked them all down.

Topher jumped over a kick that came at his feet and grabbed an Ubel, easily lifting it off of it's feet and throwing it to the side. He used his power and lifted a group of three that was coming at him with a cloud of black smoke, before letting it drift completely over them, making their bodies spark and fall to the ground.

He smirked, leaning back to avoid getting at sword in his face, before slashing the Ubel in retaliation, making it fly to the ground and skid across the wet floor.

Russ used his powers to captured the rainfall into a large ball and threw it at the Ubel coming towards him, making them all fall onto the ground in a heap. He chuckled and flipped out of the way of an incoming sword. He kicked it away as the Ubel came back to grab it and stabbed the monster through it's head.

Riley ducked under a sword swung at her head and used the opportunity to sweep the Ubel off of it's feet. She came up and stabbed her sword upwards and through another's chin as it came towards her.

She shoved it off of her sword, making it's body knock into a nearby one as it ran towards her. She then used her power to make a dark cloud like Topher had and used it to slam into a few coming towards her, making their bodies spark and get thrown to the ground.

Dylan and Rowan were also using their powers, taking advantage of the rainy situation. Rowan was taking the lightning as it struck down and turning it on any Ubel that came towards him, while Dylan was turning all the raindrops around her into ice shards, and directing them towards the footsoldiers like a cannon.

Then, after a few more minutes of fighting, the rangers defeated the last of the Ubel and regrouped back together. "Come on, let's get back to the loft," David said. "It's freezing."

The others nodded and followed him as they squeezed the sides of their rings, teleporting them out of the rain.

 **\- Cue Opening -**

Iris looked at the rangers, who were a bit exhausted and cold from the rain, but were mostly alright and were sitting on the training mat in the middle of the room. She smiled softly to herself, herself and Kenny having watched the battle back from the loft.

"You guys did a great job out there," She complimented them. "You've improved since last time."

David made a face. "Yeah, but those were just Ubel. What about when another monster comes back? It was pretty hard to beat Acacia last time."

Iris scoffed. "You guys did fine."

Kenny looked over at her with a strange look on his face. "What are you talking about? If you hadn't given Topher and Riley their rings, the other five would've been pummeled."

"Thank you, Kenny," Iris glared at him, before turning back to the rangers. "He and I are going to look over the footage from your fight a bit more to tell you where your at in terms of fighting skills. You guys should talk a bit amongst yourselves in the meantime - get to know each other or something."

The group of seven all looked around at each other awkwardly, no one really knowing what to say. "So, what do we talk about?" Riley asked, leaning back a bit and looking around.

Rowan shrugged. "Maybe say a few things about ourselves."

"Okay," Sofia smiled crossing her legs as she sat on the floor with the others. "I can start. I'm Sofia Lonemore, and I'm a freshman here. I'm studying pre-med, and my older brother, Steven, also goes to college here. I'm really glad to be a part of this because I've always loved helping people, plus I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys."

Russ raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Wow, you're gonna be a doctor? That's impressive."

"Thanks," Sofia responded, a smile still on her face. "What about you?"

He chuckled awkwardly, putting his hands behind him and leaning on them. "Well, I'm Russell Willis, named after my dad and his dad before him. I'm studying astronomy, which I've been into since I was young and got my first telescope. I have a few step siblings and a full brother - I'm the oldest out of them all." He shrugged and pursed his lips. "That's pretty much all I can think of."

"Astronomy," Rowan said in shock. "That sounds cool."

"Thanks, man," Russ nodded. "So, you must have a bunch of cool stories from Australia."

"Eh," The yellow ranger shook his head. "Not so much. I guess I'll go next - I'm Rowan Thompson, from Canberra, Australia. I come from a pretty wealthy family and came to America to study to become a doctor like my father. I've been away from home for quite a while - almost two or three years now."

Dylan had a sympathetic look on her face. "Must be hard to be away from them like that."

Rowan shrugged slightly. "Yeah, sort of."

Topher made a face. "That's not that impressive. The whole rich family thing - I have one too." He said, attracting all of the rangers' attentions. "Anyways, I'm Topher Allen and I'm here because I need to go to college to make money in the future as a real estate agent."

"That's great," Dylan said sarcastically. "Can't you respect what he was saying without turning it into a competition?"

The black ranger glared at her. "I'm not doing anything."

"Sure. Well, I'll go," Dylan ran a hand through her hair. "So, I'm Dylan Leary, and I'm studying performing arts here - I've wanted to be an actress since I was young. I was raised by my grandma and great grandpa. When I was about 15 I started online school rather than going to real school, and my best friend, Violet, started it with me, so that was fun." She noticed the looks she was getting. "Yeah, I know, it's a bit different than you'd expect."

David broke the awkward silence that was forming in the room, "I must have been awesome to have a bunch of free time with your best friend."

She chuckled. "It was. We did a lot of fun stuff - I miss her. She's back home in community college."

"Sounds nice," David smiled. "So, I'm David Eastwood. I'm here studying art, specifically designing graphic novels. I lived with my mom for most of my life, until I came here two years ago."

All of the rangers then looked to Riley, who was the last that had yet to share. She shrugged. "I'm Riley Phillips, and I'm studying history and archaeology, which was kind of the only subject I ever found an interest in when I was in high school. My mom is actually Kelly Phillips, the author and talk show host. I don't know if you've heard of her."

Dylan raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Kelly Phillips is your mom? That's awesome! My grandma used to watch her show."

"Yeah, that show's been on for a while," Riley muttered.

Just as they finished talking, Iris and Kenny had finished looking at the footage and walked over to the group, Kenny going over to the wall and pulling a few training swords off of their holsters. "Ready to start training?"

\- PRED -

On the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Hastings Hill was a lair of sorts were a monstrous looking creature overlooked the city on a small balcony. The demon had a mostly blue and white body and carried a fan like weapon on her belt.

"Riona," A voice called from behind her, making her turn to see one of the generals, Klesa, standing behind her. "Grifyth is slowly rising in strength and soon should be able to rise out his state and get back to full power."

Riona nodded, looking back over the city. "I hope you are correct. I've noticed that we have a bit of trouble."

Klesa sighed. "It's not too bad, my queen. The rangers are just a minor setback - once we take them out, we won't have to worry about it."

"You've been following the two humans around," Riona said. "The mentor and the intern. You know more about this firsthand than I do.. are you sure it's nothing to worry about? These rangers seem quite strong; they defeated Acacia."

The general's shoulder's slumped. "I'm actually no sure about the strength of the rangers or their powers. I've never been able to get into the room where the mentor stores the powers."

"I see," Riona nodded grimly. "We must not take these threats lightly. We have to treat them as they are, and proceed with caution, am I clear?"

"Yes, my queen," Klesa bowed slightly to her. "Shall I do some more research on these rangers? I can follow them around; see where they go."

Riona shook her head. "No. I will think of a plan to deal with these pests. For now, stay here and make sure Dnais does so as well."

"Of course," Klesa said, leaving Riona to her thoughts on the balcony.

\- PRED -

After training was over, all of the rangers were thoroughly exhausted, to say the least. Dylan, Riley, and Rowan all sat on the couch, trying to prepare themselves in case of another match, while all of the others were spread out amongst the floor, sitting and laying down, trying to control their breathing after the physical exertion.

"I have a question," Dylan announced, attracting Iris' attention, the latter of which was standing to the side of the training mat with Kenny. "Why is Grifyth choosing now to attack? Why hasn't he come out before to do this?"

Iris sighed. "Well, it's hard to say. I've never actually faced Grifyth myself, but I do know that the previous owners of these powers cursed him."

Sofia frowned. "What kind of a curse?"

"We're not sure." Kenny said before Iris could speak. "All we know is that this curse is what's prevented him from attacking and potentially killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people."

David made a face. "It's kind of hard to know how to face him if we don't know what we're dealing with. How did you find out any of these things anyways?"

"I was taught about it," Iris answered. "By Dr. Miles King, a professor here on campus. He used to tell me about how Grifyth and the demons only existed in another dimension and that the crystals came from the same place. I'm not sure where he learned about it, but he taught me everything I knew before things changed."

"How did things change?" Rowan asked.

"Well," Iris breathed out. "We were doing an excavation, looking for the crystals. I found them, but the cave began to collapse in on us and I got out in time with ten crystals and Miles was trapped. I hid the crystals immediately, and we all thought the worst had happened, but the rocks that covered the entrance were thrown out of the way and he walked out, perfectly fine. I have no idea how such a thing happened..." She trailed off.

Riley sat forward slightly. "And then?"

"Then, he was completely different," Iris said. "He used to be a really nice guy who wanted to find the crystals for good, but, after that, he completely changed. He wanted nothing to do with me and he only wanted the crystals to use them for power. I kept them to myself and I still think he's looking after all this time."

"That's strange, don't you think?" Russ crossed his arms.

Iris shrugged. "I can only chalk it up to that incident changing him from the stress of the situation or something. We don't really talk anymore, him and I."

Kenny scoffed. "And for good reason. He's a pretty awful person."

"Yeah," As the conversation dwindled to an end, she looked up at the clock. "Hey, it's getting pretty late. Why don't you guys get out of here? I'll see you all tomorrow, I assume?"

The rangers all nodded and began to leave, all of them making their way out within a few minutes. Iris turned to look out the rainy window, though she could feel Kenny's gaze coming towards her. "What are you still doing here?" She asked, without looking at him.

Kenny crossed his arms. "You didn't tell them the full story."

Iris pursed her lips. "The full story is complicated," She responded, turning back to look at him. "More complicated than I need to throw on them. Besides, even if they do know everything, it doesn't matter, because it won't change anything. It doesn't affect them."

"Unless they come through the other dimension," Kenny said.

The mentor shook her head. "That won't happen. They don't even know rangers exist in this universe."

"What if they come looking for the crystals?" Kenny pointed out. "They might know about that."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there, alright?" Iris said, putting a hand to her head. "Even though I completely doubt that'll ever happen."

Kenny made a face. "I guess we'll see. Let's just hope it never comes to that."

"Yeah," Iris nodded, turning back to look out the window as she breathed out, listening to Kenny eventually grab his things and leave. "I really hope it doesn't."

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth** **Defenders:** David struggles with being the leader when a tough fight leads to his teammates getting hurt.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Pains Of A Leader

 **So, in case you were wondering, Riona is not the main villain for this series. I know I've mentioned him a few times, but Grifyth won't be coming in for a little while longer, and you'll find out why in a later chapter. You'll also find out the full story in a bit, but you'll have to wait for a few chapters.**

 **This is also quite a bit shorter than I usually do, and I really haven't had (as far as I remember) a chapter like this before, but I hope you guys liked it! I just wanted some bonding between the rangers to take place before the next chapter, which is the start of the character-based chapters.**

 **Anyways, so this is the final chapter in my birthday mass update and I really hope everything I posted today was good! I've been working on them since I posted the last chapter to this, and I hope it was worth the two week wait!**

 **Oh, and here's the lineup for the next five chapters.**

 **Ep 5: Normal -** Dylan focused.

 **Ep 6: Cowardice -** Russ focused.

 **Ep 7: Held Down -** Rowan focused.

 **Ep 8: Firepower -** Sofia focused.

 **Ep 9: Party Hard -** Riley focused.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hart**


	5. Ep 4: Pains of a Leader

**Hey guys, sorry for the delay - the holidays and getting back to school kept me busy, but I'm back now. Happy New Years to you guys, and I hope you guys like the chapter!  
**

* * *

David yawned and rubbed a hand over his face as he walked through the doors of Downtown Cafe, a small coffee shop across the street from Hastings Hill University, immediately walking over to the barista and ordering his coffee, before moving to the side to grab his order.

As he grabbed his warm cup, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Sofia standing there with a smile on her face. "Morning, David," She said brightly.

Though he clearly wasn't feeling as bright as her at this time in the morning, he smiled back, "Morning. What are you doing here?"

"Same as you," She held up her coffee cup to show him. "You wanna join us?"

David frowned, "Join who?"

Sofia gestured back to a table in the corner, where Rowan, Russ, and Topher were sitting. There was also an abandoned chair, which Sofia had come from. "The team. I tried to get Dylan and Riley out, but they seemed pretty content with sleeping in. They might join us later. Do you want to...?" She asked, looking at him hopefully.

"Ehh.. why not? I don't have any classes for a little bit." He nodded, following her over to the table and pulling up a chair to sit with them. "Hey guys."

The other three guys all muttered greetings around their coffee and breakfasts, while Sofia smiled at everyone. "I'm glad we're all hanging out - it'd be kinda awkward if we were a team that never really talked to each other."

"You're not wrong," Russ chuckled. "Man, I have no idea how you're so cheerful at this time in the morning. I'm still trying to wake up,"

"It takes practice." Sofia replied, laughing lightly. "Everyone asks me things like that, you know. I've just always been this way. Besides, I'd rather be happy all the time than sad."

"That's a good rule to live by," Rowan complimented her.

Topher leaned back in his seat, taking a bite out of a scone he had bought. "I don't know about that in the morning, though. It's a little much. I'd rather just enjoy a quiet time so I can wake up in peace."

Russ made a face, "You shouldn't have come to college then. It's never quiet. I mean, there are other reasons you shouldn't have come, but I guess those aren't relevant at the moment."

"You think you're better than me?" Topher scowled. "Because you should know that you're not even close."

Sofia held a hand up to stop Russ from speaking, "Russ, it's fine. Topher's just never experienced this level of kindness before and he's not used to it yet. There's nothing wrong with that - we just have to show him what it's like."

"Are you making fun of me?" Topher crossed his arms.

"No," Sofia shook her head, frowning. "I'm not the type to make fun of people. I wouldn't want to hurt someone's feelings."

Topher rolled his eyes, "You wouldn't hurt my feelings. I'm not that sensitive."

"Okay," She said. "I believe you."

Just as she said that, the bell on the door rang as Dylan dragged Riley into the coffee shop, with the purple ranger looking to still be half asleep. Dylan nudged Riley to order, before doing so herself and then gesturing for her to come and pick up their orders together.

Dylan looked back and saw the others in the corner, and pulled Riley towards them, letting her plop down exhaustedly in a seat next to her. Riley immediately pulled out the croissant she bought and started to eat setting her coffee down.

"Morning," Dylan greeted, taking a sip of the iced tea she ordered. "Sorry we're late, Riley took a while trying to get up."

Riley scowled. "I had a long night."

Dylan chuckled. "More like you stayed out all night drinking."

"True, but that's irrelevant," Riley leaned forward and grabbed a small sugar packet off of the table to put into her coffee. She looked over at Dylan as she mixed the sugar into her coffee. "You didn't order coffee," She said, as if it wasn't obvious.

The white ranger shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not really a fan of coffee - too bitter."

Riley nodded. "That's why you gotta put sugar in it." She put the cap back on her cup and sipped a bit, before looking at her phone. "Oh shit, we should get going."

"You just got here," Russ frowned.

Dylan looked at her phone as well, checking the time. "Yeah, but she's right. Wouldn't want to be late to English," She rolled her eyes. "Why couldn't we have a more interesting class for first period?"

Topher smirked. "You have English first? Me too," He looked between the two. "How about I walk you?"

The two looked at each other, before Dylan chuckled. "Does that one usually work?"

"Works for me," Riley said, standing up. "I'd never pass up a good looking guy," She stood, gesturing her him to join her. As they stood together, Riley turned back to Dylan. "Coming?"

She stood up with a slightly amused look on her face. "Well, I guess that's us. See you guys later." Dylan said as the three left, leaving only David, Russ, Rowan, and Sofia at the table.

"I guess that means we should probably get going too." David said, standing up and straightening out his shirt, before grabbing his coffee. "See you around," He said, leaving rather quickly.

Sofia frowned, looking at Russ and Rowan. "I'm gonna go catch up to him. You guys don't mind, right?"

Russ gestured forward. "No problem, go ahead."

"Thanks," She smiled, before picking up her coffee and purse, and hurrying to catch up with him.

 **\- Cue Opening -**

"David!" Sofia called towards him, walking quickly to reach him. He turned as he heard her and slowed down, allowing her to catch up to him. "Why'd you leave so quick?"

David shrugged. "I gotta get to class."

Sofia made a face. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"

"I don't know how you mean," David shook his head. "I'm perfectly fine. I just don't want to be late."

She rolled her eyes. "That's not true. No one just abruptly leaves like that because they're fine. Besides, you didn't talk the whole time - you just sat there and watched us. I know something's wrong."

David sighed. "I just feel like I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders right now."

Sofia frowned. "Why?"

"Because of all of this ranger stuff." David admitted. "I mean, I have no problems with fighting to save the world and such, but I'm the leader. I'm in charge of this team and saving the world and protecting people..." He looked down. "That's a lot to put on someone."

The pink ranger nodded, "It's understandable that you'd feel that way. There's nothing wrong with that."

"It feels like there is," David glared at nothing in particular. "It feels like I'm complaining about how it's hard on _me_ to protect _others_ who can't protect themselves when I have the means to do so. Do you get what I mean?"

"Of course. You're doubting yourself, aren't you?" Sofia looked to him sympathetically. "There's no reason to. I mean, I know we've only had a few battles so far, but you're a good ranger and I don't doubt your ability to do this. I know you can."

David sighed, "No offense, but you hardly know me. You can't say how good I'll be if you don't know anything about me. I've failed people before, Sofia. I don't want to do it again."

"David," Sofia said sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Just don't." David shied away when she reached out a hand to touch his arm. "I don't want to talk about it. Go to class," He told her, walking the opposite way to move away from her, leaving her looking after him with a confused look on her face.

\- PRED -

Riley, Dylan, and Topher walked slowly through campus, with Topher looking between the two girls as they conversed about something that he wasn't involved or rather interested in.

"So, are you guys, like, best friends or something?" Topher asked, a strange look on his face as he interrupted their conversation. "Cause it seems like it."

The purple ranger raised an eyebrow. "What? We just met like a week or so ago."

Dylan had an indecipherable look on her face. "Topher, why did you want to walk us to class again? You've been here with us since we left, but you haven't said a word."

"Maybe I just like having attractive company," He smirked. "Besides, I'm pretty sure we're in the same class, so why wouldn't we? Did you not want to spend time with me?"

She crossed her arms. "I never said that."

Topher mimicked her position. "It was implied."

Dylan shook her head and uncrossed her arms as soon as he mocked her. "Not true. I think you just try see the worst in people because you're not used to anyone hanging out with you other than people you pay."

"Low blow," Topher said, a hard look on his face. "Maybe me seeing the worst in people helps me not be friends with people like you. I don't need you or your issues. I think you just have a hard time excepting that some people are actually better than you, Dylan." He shook his head. "I'm out of here." Topher broke away from them and began walking ahead of them.

Riley whistled. "Wow, he's sensitive."

"No, I feel bad," Dylan sighed. "That was pretty low. I shouldn't have said that."

"Don't worry about it," Riley waved it off. "He'll be fine and get over it."

Dylan looked skeptical. "I don't know, Riley. Did you hear the way he spoke to me? He sounded really upset."

"Did _you_ hear the way he spoke to you? He was extremely rude," Riley crossed her arms. "Even upset, he finds a way to throw in his narcissism. Topher thinks he's better than you, but he isn't. He's just an uptight jerk."

"If you say so," Dylan sighed, still looking guilty. "Speaking of Topher, he did have a valid question. I know we're not 'besties' or anything like that, but are we even friends? I mean, we're nice to each other and stuff, but do we actually click like friends do?"

"Why are you so worried about it?" Riley gave her a look. "I'm not trying to be rude, but that's a pretty insecure thing to say. Besides, no one really sticks around for all that long anyway, so does it really matter?"

The white ranger raised an eyebrow, "You really think that? That's not true - just because some people leave you doesn't mean that everyone will. I mean, I've been friends with my best friend for about eleven years. Anyways, there's nothing wrong with being friends with someone, even if it's not for that long."

Riley didn't look at her. "It saves us a lot of pain in the end."

"Life isn't about living in the future," Dylan crossed her arms, mimicking Riley's position. "It's about living in the moment. You have to take what you get - you can't always plan for what's gonna happen."

The purple ranger glared at her. "I'd rather not live with that uncertainty. I'll plan as good as I can, because I'm not risking being hurt. Sorry about that." Riley shook her head before stalking off ahead of Dylan, leaving her to walk alone.

\- PRED -

Later that day, Sofia made her way into the bookstore and up to the loft, where she found Iris and Kenny hunched over at the computers, looking at the large monitors. She watched them for a moment, before knocking lightly on the open door, alerting them to her presence.

"Hey, Sofia," Iris greeted, a smile on her face. "What's up?"

Sofia smiled back, "Hey, I wanted to ask you about something." She walked further into the room, joining them at the computers. "Have you ever mentored a team before, or are we your first?"

Iris chuckled. "You guys are my first, why?"

"Well, I wanted to know because David's having a hard time getting into position as leader," Sofia responded, pulling a chair up to the desk. "Not that I think he's a bad leader, but he's worried about failing us or something. I'm worried about him."

Kenny crossed his arms. "I think it's completely natural for someone to become stressed when they have a sudden pressure on them like this. It's a common emotional response."

Sofia nodded slowly, "So, if you were in his position, you'd feel the same way?"

The intern scoffed. "I'm not the type. I see the world from a logical point of view, and indulging in emotions like that isn't a logical response. I'd be accepting of the position and do my duties diligently."

"I see," Sofia said. "Well, David's having a hard time getting to that point. Do you have any suggestions on how to help him?"

Iris pursed her lips. "I don't know, Sofia. I think this is something he might have to do himself, you know? David has to put himself into the position of leader and learn how to handle it however he can."

The pink ranger rubbed her arm worriedly. "What if he can't?"

"He can," Iris assured her. "We just have to put our faith in him and hope that he can put some faith in himself to succeed."

"Okay, that makes sense." Sofia replied. "Thanks, Iris."

Iris nodded as Sofia put her chair back and got up to leave. "No problem." She and Kenny watched her leave, before getting back to the monitors.

\- PRED -

Dylan was walking alone towards her dorm, surprised at how little people were out in the area she was in. She began walking a bit slower as she heard footsteps coming up behind her, trying to listen to how close they were.

A hand was laid on her shoulder, and she spun around, knocking it off of her shoulder as she readied herself for anything, though sighed in relief when she found it to be only Russ behind her.

He had his hands up in surrender, and was chuckling a bit. "Jeez, Wonder Woman, calm down. It's just me."

"Why were you sneaking up on me?" Dylan frowned, crossing her arms.

Russ rolled his eyes. "Well, I thought it would be funny, if only I knew you were gonna get all defensive on my ass, I wouldn't have."

Dylan made a face. "I'm not being defensive." She argued as they began walking together. "I just don't think it's funny to do things like that when we could get actually attacked by monsters at any time."

"I'm keeping you on your toes, Princess." Russ told her. "Don't worry about it."

"Princess?" Dylan repeated. "Why that name?"

Russ smirked. "Cause you're too uptight. Just relax, it's not that hard."

She shook her head. "You don't even know the half of it."

The blue ranger nudged her. "So, what's going on between you and Topher?"

"There's nothing going on between Topher and I," Dylan said, frowning at him. "He's definitely not my type, and, anyways, we just met."

Russ gave her a sly look. "Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure he thinks you're hot."

Dylan shrugged. "Just because he may think that doesn't mean anything."

"Oh, so you're more about Rowan, huh?" Russ chuckled.

She shook her head. "I'm not about anyone. There's nothing going on with me and anyone. Keep in mind that I _just_ met both of these guys. I hardly know anything about them."

"Well, if I may give my input, I say you need to go for Rowan. Topher's an asshole, and doesn't deserve anyone, not even you with your crazy life," Russ commented.

"I don't have a crazy life," Dylan responded, a slightly offended look on her face. "Abnormal, maybe, but that doesn't really bother me."

"It's pretty crazy, and a bit strange," Russ prodded her, walking backwards in front of her so that he could face her. "Glad it doesn't bother you."

Dylan glared at him. "You know, it..." She trailed off, stopping in her tracks as she stared ahead of her. "Russ,"

"What?" Russ turned around, taken aback when he did so. He saw a student lying on the ground, looking so pale she could've been dead. "Oh my god." The two walked slowly forward, Russ kneeling down next to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. He shook it, but it didn't make a difference, so he put two fingers to her pulse point. "She's alive." He told Dylan. "I don't know what's wrong with her."

"I might have an idea." A male voice echoed from behind them.

The two turned around in time to see a monster hold up it's arms at them, before upturning his hands into fists. As he did so, Russ and Dylan felt as if they were being choked. Dylan looked over at Russ to see a glowing, white entity come out of his body before he fell limply to the ground. Her eyes widened, before she felt something escape her own body and everything went to black.

\- PRED -

Riley had her earbuds in her ears as she walked along the campus, not really paying all too much attention to her surroundings as she longed to get back to her dorm and have a drink or two from a bottle of rum she had sneaked in among her things.

As she walked towards her destination, she looked up to see Topher walking towards her, and surprisingly enough, not seeing anyone else around. She frowned and took one of her earbuds out so she could hear him.

"Where is everyone?" He asked, looking around.

Riley shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they got chased off by your attitude."

Topher rolled his eyes. "Wow, are you sure? I think it was your bad sense of humor."

"Well I think you're too sensitive." Riley put a hand on her hip. "Look at the way you reacted to Dylan earlier, and she was only telling the truth."

He crossed his arms. "I don't think you can talk for Dylan. Like you said, you hardly know her."

"So do you," Riley mimicked his pose. "Besides, I know her better than you. See, she actually likes hanging out with me. You? Not so much."

"You don't know that." Topher said defensively, uncrossing his arms when she mocked him. "We're just having a rough patch."

"Oh please, spare me." Riley scoffed. "She doesn't like you, get over it. Anyways, why are you being so defensive? Are you afraid she's not gonna want to fuck you anytime soon?"

Topher glared at her. "You don't know anything about me."

"I know your type, and you know how? Because I am your type. I do the exact same thing," Riley looked him up and down. "Look, I may not know either of you very well, but I do know that Dylan doesn't deserve to be led on just so you can score. If you really like her, you should let her get close to Rowan."

The black ranger shook his head. "I just met her, and you're acting like I wanna marry her. She's cute, and that's it. You probably think she is too."

Riley gave him a look. "I don't do relationships, and there are tons of cute people around. I think she's pretty, but I'm not attracted to her like that. My roommate, Bryn, yeah, but like I said, relationships aren't my thing, so that's pretty much that."

Topher raised an eyebrow. "You slept with your roommate?"

"It's college," Riley nodded. "People do worse things. Bryn is only a placeholder, anyway, and vise-versa. We sleep together when we don't have anyone else. It's our thing."

He nodded slowly. "So, you can basically sleep with your roommate all the time just for the hell of it, but you're criticizing me? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me."

"Oh, I know it is." Riley rolled her eyes. "I don't care. Don't mess with her, you and I both know she should go for golden boy Rowan."

"I didn't even know she had a thing for him." Topher responded.

Riley sighed exasperatedly. "She doesn't - not yet at least. She likes him a bit, but she doesn't even know him very well. Dylan'll figure out that she does soon enough and I want you to stay out of it."

"That's not your decision to make."

The purple ranger shot him a look. "I'm trying to protect her."

Topher scoffed. "Go ahead. Does it look like I care? I hardly know her - I have no idea why you're freaking out! I'm just flirting. It's what I do! You should know, since you're supposedly 'my type.'"

"You..." Riley groaned. "I already don't like you!

He smirked. "Or maybe you like me and just don't want to admit it. Maybe that's why you're being so defensive."

"See, I told you!" Riley exclaimed. "You're just a player!"

"Then I guess that makes you a slut." Topher retorted, earning him a hefty slap in the face from Riley, who was glaring daggers at him.

"Don't you dare call me a slut," Riley yelled. "You have no right!"

Topher held his cheek, "I have no right?! You slapped me in..."

"Children, please." A male voice interrupted their argument, attracting their attention to a monster standing there, his most prominent feature being his long talon-like claws. "Don't fight. It makes your souls much harder to digest."

Riley stared at the demon. "Excuse me? Who the hell are you?!" She demanded.

He shot them a fanged sneer. "I'm Soultalon, and I'm here to reap you."

"To reap us?" Topher rolled his eyes. "Good luck with whatever that means. I hope you know who you're dealing with."

Soultalon chuckled. "Oh, I assure you, I do. I've already reaped two of your friends."

The two rangers exchanged looks, before getting into defensive stances. Before they could do anything, however, Soultalon put his hands out and clenched his fists, pulling their souls from their bodies and making them fall limply to the ground, before chuckling to himself and stalking off.

\- PRED -

David sat outside of the bookstore, looking at the empty campus and internally cursing himself. Iris had called himself, Sofia, and Rowan to the loft, only for the three to find their friends unconscious and soulless. Iris informed them that, without their souls, the four would slowly start to die, as would anyone else attacked by Soultalon.

He punched the bench he was sitting on angrily, wondering to himself why he couldn't have done anything to stop the demon - why he couldn't have known that there was one roaming around at all.

While he knew he was beating himself up for something that wasn't his fault, he somehow couldn't get over that this had happened.

David stood and looked around, still seeing no one out. He turned around and punched the wall hard. "Fuck!" He yelled, extremely frustrated.

"Hey," A voice called to him, and he spun around quickly, seeing a man standing there. He was about 5'10, with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. He wore a dark red sweater, tan jeans, and black vans. "You okay?" He asked, though it sounded like he was only asking out of obligation rather than actual care.

The red ranger glared at him. "I'm fine. Who are you?"

"I'm Nolan." He responded, walking a bit closer to him. "You look like you could use some help."

"I don't know you, and I don't really need your help," David ground out between gritted teeth. "No offense, but there's nothing you can help me with."

Nolan crossed his arms. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," David growled. "Now leave me alone." He noticed that the wind picked up as he said this, and it seemed that Nolan did as well, though neither of them said anything about it.

The young man put his arms up in surrender. "Fine. Just trying to be helpful."

As he walked off, Sofia and Rowan came out of the bookstore, both looking sympathetically at him. "Are you alright?" Sofia asked softly.

"Why does everyone think there's something wrong with me?!" David demanded to know. "There isn't!" The wind blew exceptionally hard, alerting Rowan and Sofia.

Rowan gestured to it. "That might be why. Don't worry about it, though - Iris said it's normal for that to happen when we first start using our powers."

David sighed, "Why can't everyone just leave me alone?" He whispered. "Please."

"Okay," Sofia put her hands up in surrender, her expression soft. "We'll leave you alone."

As they began to walk back inside, a blast came their way and hit the door, cause the three to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. They looked up to see Soultalon standing before them, smiling menacingly. "Well, well. The final three rangers."

The three stood up and got into a defensive position in front of him. "Ready?" David asked.

"Ready."

"Earth Defenders, Save The People!"

"Red Air Defender!"

"Yellow Lightning Defender!"

"Pink Fire Defender!"

They rushed forward at Soultalon, who rolled his eyes and got into a defensive stance to fight back.

David ran in first, practically shoving Rowan and Sofia out of the way as he rushed to fight the monster. He slammed his sword down and repeatedly tried to slash it across Soultalon's body, though the demon quickly defended himself with his claws every time, before grabbing David's sword and pulling it out of his hands. He then quickly swiped his talons across David's body, knocking him to the ground and throwing his sword down.

Rowan then ran at Soultalon next, holding out his hands and using his power to shoot lightning out at the demon. Soultalon rolled his eyes and held his own hands out, absorbing the lightning with a smirk on his face.

"Oh dear boy, I consume energy. Your lightning is like a snack to me," He chuckled.

The yellow ranger glared at him and ran forward, drawing out his sword since he knew his blaster would be useless if Soultalon could just absorb the energy. He slashed his sword across the demon's body, hitting him once. Soultalon growled and grabbed him by the neck, his long claws digging deep into his neck.

Soultalon shook his head. "You're not worth my time." He threw him off to the side and prepared himself for Sofia's attack.

Sofia tried using her fire ability on him, to no avail, and had a similar response to trying to use her blasters. She sighed exasperatedly and picked up David's fallen sword, pulling it upwards into a sort-of uppercut and hitting the demon in the chin.

The pink ranger gasped when the sword became stuck deep into Soultalon's jaw and dropped her hands off of it. The demon glared harshly at her and grabbed the sword by the hilt, ripping it out of his own chin with a low grunt of pain.

He moved forward quickly and shoved the shocked Sofia to the ground, holding his hand out at her body. "Say goodbye, little girl."

Soultalon began to slowly remove her soul from her body, wanting to relish in the moment. As she demorphed and he began to see the soul coming out, a sharp pain erupted in the demon's back, making him screech out in pain and let go of her soul, letting it fall back into her body as she held a hand to her chest, stunned. Rowan got up from the ground and ran over to her, looking her over.

"You alright?" He asked lowly.

She nodded and the two watched as Soultalon turned around slowly, scowling with blood dripping out of his mouth from the deep injury to his back, to face David, who was staring at the demon with a shocked look on his face.

Rowan and Sofia looked up to see David's sword, which Soultalon had pulled out of his chin just moments earlier, was now stuck deeply into the demon's back - so far that it was evidently fatal.

"You'll regret this, red ranger," Soultalon coughed out, his voice wet with blood. "I'm easy compared to what's coming next."

David frowned deeply, before taking a breath. "We'll beat every demon all the same. Pity you won't be around long enough to see us win."

Sofia stood up and ripped David's sword out of Soultalon's back, making another screech erupt from the demon's body as he fell to his knees, still glaring up at David. The three rangers took a few steps back as Soultalon fell completely to the ground, exploding before them.

\- PRED -

Later that night, after all of the rangers were found to be alright and they were all allowed to go back to their dorms, David had walked back alone to his and sat down heavily on his bed once he got there, sighing deeply.

"What the hell has happened to my life?" He laughed lightly, though it wasn't in vain.

David, after this battle, found that he had a sense of purpose relating to being a ranger. He never had any issues with saving people, and, because he saved his friends, now felt a certain weight lifted off of his shoulders - albeit not completely, but it was better than nothing.

He still felt stressed and as though the fate of the world was on his shoulder - which, it was per-say - but he didn't feel as swallowed up by it. He initially felt as if he was thrown into the deep end and had no idea how to swim, but he figured it out.

The position he was in was an important one, and obviously wouldn't be easy. Fortunately, David felt as though he was finally capable of protecting the people he cared for; protecting everyone and the world from the demons.

What Soultalon said, however, was still slightly bothering him. He understood that it was likely that Grifyth or whoever was currently in charge would send out the lackeys before the big guns, but how would that cause David to regret what he had done?

Killing one demon that was easy, just because the next ones would be harder, had nothing to do with regret. David would never regret saving people from any demon - easy or difficult to kill.

There's no reason he should regret it.

David took in a deep breath and rubbed a hand down his face, looking to the side, where he had placed a picture of himself as a child, with someone who looked to be about five or so years older than him at the time of the picture.

He picked up the picture frame and stared at the photo, a million thoughts rushing through his head. David contained his thoughts, and focused on one.

"I'm not gonna let them down - not like I did to you." He whispered. "I'm gonna keep my team safe. I promise."

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders:** Dylan finds herself in a strange predicament when she wakes up in a post-apocalyptic version of our world where she finds a group of rangers with the same powers as herself and her own team, and has to figure out how to get back to her own world.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Normal

 **I know I took a bit longer than I said I would on this, but this was kind of a tough chapter to write since I had to think of a good reason for David to be insecure about himself being the leader and such.**

 **The next chapter's going to show a small glimpse of some future problems in this story, though will only cover some of the things to come, most likely, in season 2 (yes, I am planning a season 2!). The reason I'm having this preview of sorts is because, not only am I really excited to show you what's to come, but I also wanted a really good reflection chapter for Dylan, and that's really what the next chapter's gonna be. I can't wait to show it to you guys!**

 **Also, since I need to get over a certain hurdle in Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as this story, I'm going to be writing chapters for these two until I get past that. I'm pretty sure the next chapter of this will be good for me to get back into my others, but PRGG might be two or three until it's to the point where I don't have to leave it on cliffhangers all the time. Once I do the next one of this, I'll try to get PRER and PRRF in the mix behind the scenes, but no promises until I finish the PRGG arc.**

 **Anyways, sorry for the super long author's note! Here are the next five chapters!**

 **Ep 6: Cowardice -** Russ focused chapter.

 **Ep 7: Held Down -** Rowan focused chapter.

 **Ep 8: Firepower -** Sofia focused chapter.

 **Ep 9: Party Hard -** Riley focused chapter.

 **Ep 10: Snob -** Topher focused chapter.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	6. Ep 5: Normal

**Hey guys, here's this next chapter! Like I said, I would be updating this before Emergency Responders or Rainbow Fighters, so here this is. After this chapter, scheduling with be back to normal with PRGG, PRER, PRRF, and then this again. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Nolan is portrayed by Xavier Samuel**

 **Vera is portrayed by Shelley Hennig**

 **Xavier is portrayed by Steven Krueger**

 **Aaron is portrayed by Connor Paolo**

 **Willow is portrayed by Camilla Belle**

 **Piper is portrayed by Hayden Panettiere**

 **Cole is portrayed by Hunter Parrish**

 **Easton is portrayed by Robert Sheehan**

 **Naomi is portrayed by Lea Michele**

 **Malia is portrayed by Crystal Reed  
**

* * *

Iris had her arms crossed as she and Kenny, who was standing next to her, observed the rangers in front of them, watching them spar one-on-one. The only exception was David, Rowan, and Sofia, who had to all spar together due to the odd number of rangers on the team. Besides them, the other two pairs were Riley and Topher and Russ and Dylan.

The mentor watched Dylan and Russ in particular, seeing that their sparring was becoming a bit more heated than the others. Iris gestured for them all to stop, and the other five did so, while they kept sparring.

David was about to stop them when Iris shook her head at him, signaling for him to let them continue.

Kenny waved to the others, gesturing for them to join himself and Iris on the side of the mats, while Russ and Dylan continued their match.

The two were going at each other hard and weren't showing any signs of stopping at that moment. Russ smirked at his opponent as he blocked a punch. "Wow, Princess, you're doing better than I thought."

"And I thought I told you not to call me that," Dylan growled out, grabbing his arm as he attempted to take her down, and used the opportunity to pin him to the ground with her knee on his back.

Russ chuckled breathlessly. "Man, it's not just your life that's crazy - you are too."

She rolled her eyes and let him up, scowling as she did so. "I'm not crazy, and neither is my life."

He nodded mockingly. "Oh, right, I'm sorry. Your life is just _abnormal_."

"And yours is all rainbows and pixie dust?" Dylan crossed her arms. "It's not that bad. Everyone just has a few skeletons in the closet."

Russ raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because, I don't have any like yours. I mean, my life is pretty normal, and yours.. isn't."

"Russ, knock it off," Iris scolded. "You're being rude."

"I'm just joking around. Everybody just needs to chill out." Russ put his hands up in mock surrender.

Dylan shook her head. "It's fine, Iris. That's just how Russ is."

"True," Topher agreed. "He's like that with me too."

Russ scoffed. "Yeah, but you're a nuisance and I'm usually not joking with you. You're douche, plain and simple."

Kenny rubbed a hand down his face. "I think we should all just stop arguing and get on with training. This conversation is highly unimportant."

"I'm done." Dylan said. "Don't worry about it." She walked towards the bench, where her towel lay, but, as she did so, she tripped over the border between the hardwood and training mat, falling towards the bench and hitting her head on it hard. Dylan vaguely heard the others exclaiming around her, before everything faded out.

 **\- Cue Opening -**

Dylan came to with a groan, shielding her eyes with her hands against a harsh light. When she opened her eyes completely, she saw sunlight shinning at her face through a bedroom window.

She frowned, not really remembering anything before this. Sitting up, she looked around and recognized the room as her bedroom from home.

"Huh," Dylan said, brows knitting together in confusion.

Pushing herself out of bed, Dylan walked around the room and came to a stop before her closet, feeling the clothes that resided inside. They were all of her clothes, including ones she couldn't bring to college.

"Hey," A voice said as a man's head poked through her door. He looked to be only a few years older than her, with lightly tanned skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes that reminded her of her own. "I'm glad you're home, Dylan."

She made a face. "What? Who are you, exactly?"

He sighed, looking concerned as he stepped into the room. He was wearing a suit, and looked very professional. The man put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm Oliver, your brother. Remember? I'm sorry, you must be a bit disoriented from your time outside the dome."

"The dome?" Dylan repeated. "And you're my brother?"

Oliver nodded. "Yes. Do you remember me? Or our parents?"

Dylan stared at him. "No. I don't have a brother, and I don't live with my parents..." She trailed off, frowning. Her head felt fuzzy, and, while she was pretty sure of her answers, she didn't know if she was right at the moment, which felt very off. "Do I?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "Well, you actually moved out to live in an apartment recently, but you just got back, so we figured it would be best to keep you here for now."

"Is that all I should know?" She asked.

Oliver snapped his fingers as he thought of something. "No, thanks for reminding me. You're working your shift at the store today. I left the directions on your communicator, so just look at that and you'll be good to go."

"So, I just got back from somewhere mysterious and I immediately have to go to work the next day?" Dylan crossed her arms.

"You're funny." Oliver chuckled. "Of course you do. No one takes a day off of work here." He walked back towards the door, before looking at her. "Good luck."

Dylan smiled awkwardly as he left, before taking in a deep breath. "Okay, I don't remember any of this. What the hell is going on?" She whispered to herself. Shaking her head, she got changed into her clothes for the day and walked downstairs.

When she made it down there, she felt as if her breath had been stolen from her. Standing in the kitchen was her mother, as well as the man she knew from pictures as her father.

Suddenly she got this headache sensation where she saw some images flash through her vision. Dylan breathed out in shock, before backing out of the house as quickly as she could to get fresh air.

"I don't live with my parents," She muttered under her breath. "I know I don't. What is this?" Dylan looked up at the sky, noticing something strange about the way it looked. Not being able to figure out what it was, she took out the communicator, which looked a lot like a phone, and saw the instructions on how to get to the store where she supposedly worked. "Let's see where this takes me."

\- PRED -

She made it to the location rather quickly, finding herself at a grocery store. Dylan took a deep breath and made her way inside, immediately locking eyes with someone she recognized instantly.

Again, the headache feeling came on, flashing images of their time together across her vision, which went away as quickly as it came. When it was gone, she walked over to the person.

"Violet?" Dylan asked, looking her over. Violet was pale with platinum hair, blue eyes, and stood at about 5'2. She was wearing a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and black slip-on vans. "You're here." She concluded unnecessarily.

"Yeah, hey Dylan." Violet nodded. "It's good that you're bad. We were all afraid we had lost you for a while."

"I've heard that before." Dylan chuckled. "I'm really glad you're here, though. One person I recognize in this sea of unfamiliar people."

Violet chuckled. "Yeah, it's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"It has?" She frowned, before shaking her head. "Yeah, I guess it has." Dylan observed her surroundings. "Hey, how did I get a life like this?"

Her best friend raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "I guess I mean.. so normal. I have a mom, dad, and a brother and, on top of it all, I have the most basic job at a grocery store. This isn't how I remember my life."

"Well, would you rather have it be totally crazy?" Violet asked as she continued to stack cans on a shelf.

Dylan was taken aback by the question. She'd never really thought much about it, but as she remembered living with her great grandfather rather than her parents, and not having any siblings or a regular job at all, it seemed like something she should think about.

Never really having an inclination to live with her mother, given she was a drug addict and a criminal, and never really having one to live with her father, who she knew was rich and had a family without her, it had become something she had just forgotten about.

The best way to describe it was that Dylan was never unsatisfied with her life, unless it was brought up by others that they believed she should live a different one. People had a way of giving their unwanted opinions to her about how her life would be so much better if she just lived with her parents. It seemed wrong to them that she could possibly live with anyone else, even other family members.

When she was in the sixth grade, she had read a report on her life and had started crying halfway through because she saw the scrutinizing looks from her private school classmates. That was the last years she was ever in private school, transferring over to public school in 7th grade.

In high school, she had started experiencing intense anxiety that had led her to be home-schooled, and even was ridiculed by others for the way she felt. That was when she really began questioning herself and her life, leaving a slight depression from everything around her.

Her grandmother would also not leave her alone. She, named Lynn, was an alcoholic who wouldn't stop drinking, usually ever. Lynn would get angry and call Dylan names and yell and provoke physical fights occasionally, ones she would blame completely on Dylan.

It got to the point where Dylan didn't know if she really loved her anymore, because she couldn't take the constant back and forth of drunk anger and drunk love. Then, Lynn would talk about others as well, not giving up when Dylan asked her to stop.

Especially when it came to her mother. Dylan didn't want to hear any rude remarks about how her mother, Renee, was a snake and would leave her the minute she showed up.

She figured she should know better - that she should know her mother wouldn't do that.

But.. she didn't.

Dylan knew nothing about the woman who had carried her for 9 months. Renee left, and that couldn't be replaced by phone calls from prison and promises that she wasn't sure would be kept.

Sighing, Dylan responded, "I guess you're right. I don't know if I'd want it any other way but like this. This seems perfect to me."

"Yeah, you have a pretty nice life." Violet smiled. She opened her mouth to say more, when an explosion sounded from outside. "Damn, okay. Everyone, get in the back!" She yelled to the customers, who acted like this was normal.

Dylan, on the other hand, frowned. "What the hell is going on?"

Violet gestured to the window. "Look outside, but join us in the back as soon as possible, alright?"

"Okay," Dylan nodded dumbly, walking slowly over to the window as the last person in the front of the store. Looking outside, she was suddenly bombarded with a headache and more images blocking her vision.

The headache passed immediately after, and Dylan looked up, staring out the window. "Rangers?" She frowned. Before her were three rangers that looked very similar to her own ranger suit, she recognized, but they were in different colors - gold, green, and orange. What else was strange is that there was an armored crimson colored ranger also there, but he was fighting against the other three.

Before she could go out there, to her shock, the other seven rangers showed up - including a white ranger.

"What?" She whispered in shock. "They.. they're not us." Dylan realized.

Suddenly, as Dylan continued to watch, she saw the crimson.. knight ranger's back turned to her, and had to immediately back away when he was thrown through the window, smashing into her and throwing her back into a shelf.

She looked up through her blurry vision and tried to watch the fight, but the edges around her vision closed in on her as everything went to black.

\- PRED -

"Hey," A voice said to her as she opened her eyes, a blurry face coming into view. A young woman was hovering over her, with a hardly concerned look on her face. "You awake?"

Dylan took in a deep breath and pushed herself up, looking the young woman over. She seemed to be around 19, and had light brown hair, brown eyes, light tan skin, and stood around 5'8. She wore a white, lace-up tank top tucked into blue jean shorts, and black and white vans. "Who are you?" She asked, frowning.

"Veronica O'Shea," The young woman responded. "The white warrior, but you can call me Vera."

"White warrior?" Dylan made a face. "You're the white ranger that I saw." She looked Vera up and down once more. "That's impossible."

Vera stood up, rolling her eyes. "Not so much. Come on, I guess I should introduce you to the others."

"Okay," Dylan nodded dumbly, pushing herself to her feet and walking through the dimly lit room and into a much brighter room that looked like a government lab of sorts. Standing in the lab were nine other people, all giving her different degrees of suspicious looks.

"Ready for this?" Vera asked, causing Dylan to nod again, not knowing how to respond. "This is Dylan. Introduce yourselves," She told the others.

Almost immediately, two of them stepped forward. "I'm Naomi, and this is my boyfriend, Easton. I'm the green warrior, and he's the gold." She introduced herself. They both had dark brown hair, with Naomi having brown eyes, tan skin, while Easton had green eyes, pale skin. Easton was wearing a brown shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers, while Naomi wore a green t-shirt under blue jean overalls, and brown booties.

Dylan smiled weakly. "Hi,"

"I'm Piper, the purple warrior," A voice said from behind Naomi and Easton, causing Dylan to look past them. "And this is my brother, Cole, the black warrior." The two looked extremely alike, both with blonde hair, pale skin, and blue-green eyes. Cole wore a black hoodie, blue jeans, and black boots, and Piper wore a purple turtleneck crop top, black jean shorts, and black converse.

Before Dylan could say anything to them, an arm was placed on her shoulder, startling her. "I'm Aaron - yellow," He had brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and was wearing a yellow t-shirt, black joggers, and brown moccasins. "I've never seen you around."

Vera scoffed from beside her. "Leave her alone, Aaron." She then gestured ahead. "The last four probably won't say anything so here, the one in red is Nolan, blue is Xavier, pink is Willow, and orange is Malia."

Xavier and Willow both tan skin, brown hair, brown eyes, while Malia had paler skin, but the same eyes and hair. Xavier wore a navy button up, black slacks, and black loafers; Willow wore a pink blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt, and black pumps; and Malia had a white Rolling Stones t-shirt over black ripped jeans, and black combat boots.

"It's nice to meet you," Dylan said, taking in a deep breath and looking down. The lights above her were getting too bright and all of the stares felt like they were boring into her. "Umm.. I need to go in the other room for a second."

She quickly escaped to the room she was just in without waiting for a response, before sitting down and running a hand through her hair as she breathed in quickly. "You okay?" Vera's voice came from behind her.

Dylan looked up quickly, shrugging it off. "Yeah, no, I'm fine. Just.. a lot to take in."

"You're telling us," Aaron said as he slipped past Vera and sat on the couch next to Dylan. "I'll handle this, Vera."

"Aaron," Vera glared at him, but he gestured for her leave with an eye roll. "Fine, it's your funeral." She said as she shook her head and left the room.

The yellow warrior smirked at Dylan. "Well, now that we're alone, maybe we can talk."

"About?" Dylan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, where exactly did you come from?" Aaron looked her over. "Like I said, I've never seen you here before."

Dylan sighed. "Honestly, I don't know, but it's not from here. Where is here, anyways?"

Aaron chuckled. "Hastings Hill, obviously. It's practically the only place left after Morfran took over."

"Morfran?"

He made an impatient face. "Look, can't we talk about anything else? I mean, it's not everyday I see a new pretty girl walk in here."

"Oh," Dylan smiled awkwardly, "You seem like a nice guy and all, but I..."

"Have a boyfriend?" Aaron finished bitterly.

"No, but I'm thinking about someone else," Dylan admitted. "I know I don't know that much about him or anything, but there's a click, you know what I mean?"

Aaron opened his mouth to respond when the door opened and Malia walked in, "Get out, Aaron."

He frowned. "Don't tell me what to do,"

Malia shook her head and grabbed him by the arm, roughly shoving him out of the room before she closed the door behind her. "Look, I don't care about you - at all. The only thing I care about is keeping this city safe, and getting rid of this stupid gem," She showed her the orange ring on her finger. "You being here causes a lot of problems. I could kill you right here right now, but I'm not going to, it's too messy."

"What are you talking about?" Dylan asked, standing up in case she needed to defend herself.

"Oh please," Malia rolled her eyes at Dylan's defensiveness. "I'm here to tell you that you need to run. You're not from here, Vera brought you here when you got knocked out in your world. In your world, you're a ranger and you're fighting Grifyth. Run towards the edge of the fence and get out, before Morfran realizes that Grifyth is still around."

Dylan blinked rapidly as she thought, before looking back up at Malia. "Where's the fence?"

\- PRED -

Meanwhile, at the hospital, the rangers were all sitting in the waiting room with Kenny and Iris, waiting for any news on Dylan. Iris would've kept Dylan at the loft to be treated, but Topher and Riley had insisted on bringing her to the hospital, considering she was unconscious and bleeding pretty badly.

Iris had told them that she could treat her, and while Riley seemed to be slightly swayed on the matter, Topher stood firmly on the subject and picked up the white ranger himself to take her there.

He was now pacing nervously while the others sat down. "I know you're worried and all, but is the pacing really fucking necessary?" Riley asked, looking up at him. "You're giving me a damn migraine,"

Topher glared at her. "We can't lose Dylan."

"You do know that you just met her less than a month ago, right?" Russ pointed out. "What is with you and her? Besides, she probably likes _someone else_ , if you know what I mean."

"So, because I'm worried about someone, suddenly I'm crazy or something?" Topher crossed his arms.

Russ rolled his eyes. "I didn't say that; calm down. All I'm saying is that you don't really seem like the type to be all freaked by something like this, especially for someone you just met."

Sofia put her hand up to stop Topher from responding. "She's gonna be fine. A bump to the head, maybe a concussion, but a few stitches later and she'll be okay."

"I..." Topher took a deep breath. "Fine, okay. She'll be fine." Riley then stood up, taking him by the arm and pulling him to the side, where he managed a smirk. "So, I guess you do like me, huh?"

Riley rolled her eyes. "That's not it at all." She looked him up and down. "You _really_ like Dylan, don't you?"

Topher shrugged. "She's cute, and has a nice personality."

The purple ranger shook her head. "No, that's not it. You were mad at her just the other day, and now you're all obsessed with her out of nowhere."

"I'm not obsessed with her," Topher growled. "Besides, you wanted her to come here too, so you must be worried. Are you guys friends now?"

Riley crossed her arms. "I never said we weren't friends, I just said that we weren't close."

"Well, I think you should just back off." Topher said, pulling away from her. "I'm going back to wait for news."

"Topher..." Riley trailed off as he stalked away from her. She leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. "Damn it."

\- PRED -

Dylan ran as fast as her legs would carry her, sprinting towards the wall that surrounded the city. There was a door to get out just in front of her, which was opened because military vehicles were coming through into Hastings Hill.

She saw that the government agents were looking at her, and heard them yelling for her to stop, but she ran past all of them as they tried to blast her with their weapons and ran out of the door just before it closed. Once she was a safe distance away, she came to a stop and put her hands on her knees as she breathed deeply.

Looking around, all she saw was remains of vehicles and people buried under thin layers of sand. Dylan backed away from it until she tripped over a piece of metal and fell to the ground, hitting her head on something else and disorienting her for a moment.

"Fuck," She whispered, putting a hand up to her forehead, where she felt blood dripping.

Footsteps came from behind her and she looked up to see Vera standing there with her arms crossed. "So, I help you out and take you in only to have you run away, huh?"

Dylan glared at her and pushed herself to her feet. "You weren't trying to help me. Malia told me that you're the one who brought me here. I remember everything now."

Vera nodded. "I did bring you here, but you don't even know where here is. You don't know why you're here, or what's going on."

"I know that you're a ranger - my counterpart," Dylan responded. "I know you're fighting someone named Morfran and I know that you don't want him to know that Grifyth is still alive."

"Of course we don't want him to know Grifyth is alive." Vera said, as if it were obvious. "If there's a devil, it would be Morfran. If he knew Grifyth was alive, Morfran would stomp us like a bug and move on to find him. He wouldn't have any interest in toying with us anymore and would send everything he has to destroy us in one swoop."

Dylan shook her head. "Okay, then why'd you bring me here? If you are so intent on keeping things the way they are, then why am I here?"

"Because I wanna show you what's coming." Vera ground out. "We are coming to take back what's ours, and, since you can see how bad it is here, just imagine how much stronger we are than you."

"We didn't take anything from you. Besides, what do you think is gonna stop me from telling my team about this? Warning them and showing them how you look?" Dylan mocked Vera's stance.

Vera walked towards her quickly, before Dylan had time to respond. She held up her arm. "You see this bracelet? I borrowed it from one of my friends. It helps me get into your mind." Vera grabbed the sides of Dylan's head.

Suddenly, a bright light shined and Dylan closed her eyes, then taking in a deep breath and opening them to find herself in the hospital with Vera standing over her, hands still on her head. She was dressed like a nurse, and smirked a her. "This is what's going to prevent you from telling anyone." She looked into Dylan's eyes. "Forget until I need you to."

Dylan blinked a few times as Vera let go of her head. She looked up at Vera. "Who are you?" She asked groggily.

"I'm your nurse, Veronica." She responded with a smirk. "You're doing great - gonna get out after a quick check up from your doctor. I'll let your friends in."

The white ranger watched her with a frown as Vera left the room to let the others in, Topher immediately coming in first. "Are you okay?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," Dylan made a face. "I just hit my head, right? I don't feel bad or anything."

"The doctor said you don't have a concussion, just a few stitches." Topher looked her over. "You promise you're okay?"

"I..." Dylan raised an eyebrow at his concern, before smiling softly. "Yeah, I'm sure. Are you okay?"

Topher frowned. "I'm not the one who wiped out earlier."

"Hey," Riley pointed at Topher as the others walked in behind him. "Don't smother her, she's fine."

Iris walked ahead of them and up to Dylan. "Are you alright? Do you remember anything?"

Dylan thought for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, I don't remember anything, actually."

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders:** Russ has a hard time dealing when a monster views him as a coward, and accidentally makes things worse for the team during the fight.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Cowardice

 **So, I know that the storyline for Topher, Riley, and sort of Rowan have been focusing around Dylan a lot lately and I wanted to address that to clear up any possible confusion. For Rowan, he has a certain pull towards Dylan in a romantic sense, as does Topher, but it's pretty different for Topher. He had Borderline Personality Disorder, and a common symptom of that disorder is having a 'favorite person' who they put on a pedestal in a sense (as I've read, please correct me if I'm wrong), and Dylan is becoming that person for him.**

 **Riley has a hard time connecting with people on the other hand, but she's finding a friend in Dylan rather quickly, which is confusing for her. You'll see their friendship (one of my my favorites to write) blossom over time. As for the others, they can sense the tension, as well as Topher having mentioned it to them, and people like Russ, are getting involved. That's what's going on with that.**

 **Also, a great idea suggested to me by Quantum Beware is doing a team up with one ranger from all of my teams for my 5th anniversary on this website, which is coming up this August. I know that's a long ways away, but since I need to plan it, I'm going to be having polls up for you guys to vote on your favorite rangers from each season (except Ancient Animals, since most haven't read that). One for Dino Squad is up now, so please vote if you read that story!**

 **Anyways, sorry for the super long author's note! Here are the next five chapters!**

 **Ep 7: Held Down -** Rowan focused chapter.

 **Ep 8: Firepower -** Sofia focused chapter.

 **Ep 9: Party Hard -** Riley focused chapter.

 **Ep 10: Snob -** Topher focused chapter.

 **Ep 11: Should've Been You -** David focused chapter.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	7. Ep 6: Coward

**Hey guys! I wanted to let you know that I may be obscuring from my regular updating order for a while, mostly because I am on a certain time crunch to get my fifth anniversary chapter(s) out, as well as have a few other surprises for you guys on August 4th. This means that I'm basically going to try to finish Guardians of the Galaxy (32 chapters left), Rainbow Fighters (17 chapters left), and the first season of this story (19 chapters left) by then.**

 **Please bare with me on this - it'll be kind of crazy with the updates for a while! Anyways, I hope you enjoy the ride!**

* * *

Russ sat in his and Topher's dorm, studying for an upcoming test while a heavy storm raged outside. It was raining so hard, in fact, that Russ almost thought it was hailing with the loud thuds of the raining against his window. He looked up from his book for a moment and looked behind him at the window, watching the rain from outside and looking up at the clouds, before sighing and turning back to his astronomy textbook.

Just as he did, the door opened and Topher walked in, immediately walking over to his side and searching through his things, almost frantically. Russ ignored him for a few moments, but he could tell Topher was getting increasingly agitated and looked back up from his book.

"Are you alright?" Russ asked, bookmarking his page and closing his book.

Topher looked at him, an almost wild look in his eyes. "I need to find my umbrella - I'm gonna give it to Dylan."

Russ raised an eyebrow, "Did she ask for it?" When Topher shook his head, Russ continued, "What is with you?" He asked, exasperated. "Do you really like this girl so much that you're gonna act like the world is gonna end if you don't give her your umbrella? Especially considering she didn't even ask you for it."

"She might hate me if I don't," Topher muttered absentmindedly. "Why is it any of your business, anyways?"

"I.. I'm really confused." Russ frowned. "What makes you think she'd hate you? You seem really freaked."

"Like I said, it's none of your business, and I'm not a coward, unlike you," Topher growled out, offhandedly.

Russ' fist clenched for a moment in annoyance. He knew Topher didn't truly mean what he was saying, as the black ranger had just made a comment to get him to back off, but it angered him either way. "I'm not a coward."

"Could've fooled me," Topher said, standing up and walking over to his closet, before proceeding to practically tear it up as well. "You're not trying for anyone in particular. Afraid of what they may think?"

The blue ranger rolled his eyes. "I don't have to be completely obsessed to like someone, and besides, there's no one I want to try for at the moment. I would never not try for anyone just because of what they might think, for the record."

Topher nodded, not too interested in what Russ was saying. "Yeah, that's cool."

"Are you even listening to me?" Russ crossed his arms as Topher finally pulled out his umbrella. "I'm not a coward."

"Okay, fine, you're not." Topher put his hands up in surrender. "You win. You're the bravest person I know, but I gotta go, killer."

Russ opened his mouth to say more, but Topher had already rushed out of the room, completely having forgotten the conversation they just had. Russ groaned in frustration, before looking over at his clock, seeing it was about time to walk to his class. He put his book on the table and stood up from where he was sitting on his bed, grabbing his backpack up form the floor.

He looked over and noticed Topher's backpack completely discarded on the floor, and rolled his eyes. Russ was more than a little confused about Topher's actions, but was much more focused on the fact that Topher had called him a coward, which wasn't even close to true.

Sighing to himself, he grabbed everything else he needed and left the dorm.

 **\- Cue Opening -**

After her morning classes, Riley was walking across campus to get to lunch, searching through her purse as she did so. Her head was pounding from her activities of the night before, particularly the heavy drinking. She hadn't made it back to her dorm until very early that morning, and was starting to regret her decision as her exhaustion was beginning to dawn on her.

She pulled out an aspirin and popped it in her mouth, dry-swallowing it before continuing her trek to get lunch. As she did so, she was at least pleased that it stopped raining for a bit, even though it was still rather dark and cloudy.

"Riley!" A voice called from behind her. She turned to see Russ jogging up to her and smiled faintly.

"Hey," She said, a bit awkwardly. "What's up?"

Russ caught up to her and smiled back. "Hey," He looked around. "Where's the other half?"

Riley rolled her eyes. "Dylan is not my 'other half,' and I assume doing something else. Actually, I've only seen her once today - mostly, I've been with Bryn,"

"Bryn?"

She nodded. "My roommate. She's cool," Riley looked him up and down, noticing the way he was looking at her. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" She crossed her arms, giving him a look back.

He shrugged, looking down in a way Riley recognized. "Well, I..."

Riley held a hand up and stopped, "Russ, stop. What are you doing and why are you doing it?"

"This morning, Topher said I was a coward because he thought I was afraid of what girls would think of me and..." Russ was promptly cut off by Riley.

"So you thought it would be nice to show him up by asking me out?" Riley made a face. "Really? What made you think that would work?"

Russ stared at her, suddenly becoming awkward. "You know, I've heard things," He then got a bit angry for a moment. "And, I can't stand Topher's arrogance, okay? He's a dick."

"I don't know what you've heard, but I don't do anything with anybody just to prove a point," Riley said, shaking her head at him. "I'm surprised that you, of all people, don't understand that. I get that you want to prove yourself, but all you're proving is that you're lower than he is."

She began to walk away, but he followed closely behind, catching her arm lightly. "Okay, I'm sorry." He apologized quickly. "I just can't stand it when people call me a coward, especially people like Topher who think they're better than everyone else."

Riley looked to the side slightly. "I don't know about that. Bryn, she's a psychology major, said that he just acts that way because that's how he was brought up and he's used to it. She says that she's not sure that he's really like that."

Russ rolled his eyes. "That's not really the point." He muttered. "The point is that I always have to prove myself when people say things like that. I need them to know that I'm not a coward."

"But..." She trailed off as she felt her ring heat up against her finger. Riley looked over at Russ, seeing that he had noticed as well. "Let's go." Riley said, making him nod and take off with her.

\- PRED -

The two arrived at the battle, having morphed on the way, in time to see David getting knocked down by Melantha, the demon of the week. She was a tall, dark demon with a earthy pattern to her body, even with a staff that looked like a branch from a tree.

Riley raised an eyebrow at the demon, "Wow, I wonder what tree she ripped that off of."

"Doesn't look like any around here are too damaged," Russ chuckled.

From in front of them, Dylan turned to face them as she struggled with Melantha. "Hey, we could use some help over here, if you're done with your conversation, that is."

At her insistence, the two were thrown out of their stupor and ran in to help the others, who were mostly struggling to get back up after attacks. Dylan and Melantha were locked in battle with each other, her sword and Melantha's staff both pushing to get the upper hand. After a few more moments of struggle, however, Russ slashed the demon on her back, causing her to cry out and turn away from Dylan, though she shoved the white ranger away in the process.

Topher, who had been thrown the the ground, got up and blasted Melantha before anyone else could do anything, startling Russ who had been in mid-swing of his sword. This gave the demon the chance to whack him with her staff, throwing him into Topher and making both of them fall to the ground.

Riley jumped out of the way of Melantha's staff and held her hand out, making a cloud of darkness come over them. Using the dark to her advantage, Riley slashed through Melantha as many times as she could before the demon grabbed her by the neck and hoisted her into the air as the darkness faded.

Russ was running back into the fight, seeing as the other rangers were all on the ground from attacks that happened before Riley and Russ got there, but stopped when he saw that Melantha had Riley in her possession. He shoved his sword back in his belt and pulled out his blaster, pointing it at Melantha, though she held Riley in front of her, keeping her in a choke-hold all the while.

The blue ranger started to put his blaster down, not wanting to risk Riley getting hurt, when Melantha spoke up and made him freeze in his actions. "Such a cowardly little ranger. You would risk me winning for nothing?" She rolled her eyes. "You're pathetic." She squeezed at Riley's neck tighter, making her demorph and struggle for air.

"I'm not coward," Russ growled out, putting his blaster back up. "Now let her go."

Melantha shook her head. "Please. You would never shoot me as long as I hold your friend - you're too scared to hurt her."

His finger wavered over the trigger as he tried to aim at Melantha without hitting Riley. "I'm not scared of anything." He hissed through gritted teeth as he found an opening and shot.

As he did so, Melantha moved slightly, making the blast hit her and Riley at the same time, hitting Melantha in the face and hitting Riley in the side. Riley was thrown out of Melantha's grasp and fell to the ground gasping for air and clutching her side as she rolled over in pain, while Melantha clawed at her face in anger and agony, a burn spreading across half of her face like wildfire.

"Riley!" Dylan screeched, as the rangers watched what happened in horror.

Russ dropped his blasters in shock of what happened, and Melantha turned back towards him, her face a mess of burns. "You'll pay for this blue ranger! Mark my words! I'll be back to finish you!"

Melantha disappeared into thin air, and Dylan scrambled to her feet, running over to Riley. She demorphed and touched Riley's shoulder, trying to look her over. Dylan jumped when she felt a touch on her own shoulder, and looked up to see Rowan standing over her. She moved out of the way slightly and let him kneel down next to Riley, looking her over. Sofia also came over, both her and Rowan being in the same pre-med classes.

Dylan saw the others had demorphed as well, and were all standing around the injured Riley, while Russ stood a way back, not wanting to get too close. She growled under her breath and got up, storming over to him and shoving him back. "What the hell was that?! You could've gotten Riley killed, you stupid ass!"

"I..." Russ was cut off by Rowan, who grabbed Dylan's arm as she advanced towards Russ again.

"Hold on, alright?" Rowan said calmly, pulling her gently back towards him. "Riley's gonna be okay, we just need to get her back to the loft. We can deal with what happened there."

She looked up at him, and took a deep breath, moving closer to him for a hug, which he returned comfortingly. "Okay." She nodded. "Thank you. I just.. get a little out of hand when I'm angry."

"We all do." Rowan assured her as they pulled away, neither of them noticing Topher's glare from behind them. "Let's get back." He said, turning back to the others.

\- PRED -

Back at the loft, Riley was laying on a bed in the back room, resting and recovering from the attack. She had a pretty bad burn on her side from Russ' blaster, and bruises around her neck from Melantha's hand, but she was going to be alright besides that. Sofia was tending to her, while the others were in the main room, Iris scowling at Russ.

"Russ, you made a dangerous mistake today," Iris crossed her arms. "What got into you? I know you guys haven't been here long, but I've never seen you risk the life of one of your teammates before."

"Was I _really_ risking her life, though?" Russ asked, trying to act nonchalant. "I mean, she just got burned."

Iris looked at him as if he was crazy. "Only because of where she was hit. If she had been hit in an important area, especially one with vital organs, the burn could've easily spread through her skin and killed her."

"I didn't mean to hit her!" Russ exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "I was aiming for the demon!"

The mentor rolled her eyes. "Melantha was holding Riley in front of her, using her for a shield. You should've came up with another idea that wouldn't have gotten Riley injured."

Russ shook his head. "She was getting hurt already! Melantha was choking her, and if I didn't act, she could've died regardless!"

David spoke up, before Iris could. "Alright, you made a mistake," He said, standing up as well. "We can forgive that. It could've happened to anyone, but at least tell us what set you off. We deserve that much, right?"

"I wasn't _set off_ , okay?" Russ turned away from them, fuming. "I'm fine. Just.. leave me alone!" He was about to storm out, when he paused by the door and turned back, eyeing Dylan. "Tell Riley I'm sorry." He muttered, before exiting and leaving the other rangers by themselves.

Dylan thought to herself for a moment, before looking at the others. "Melantha called Russ a coward, right before he shot at her." She pointed out. "Maybe that's what set him off."

"Why would he care what the demon thinks?" David frowned. "He knows who he is."

"It's not about what the demon thinks, David," She gave him a look. "It's about insecurity. Like.. say I thought I was really pretty, but someone told me I was ugly. No matter what I thought, and no matter who that person is, it would bother me. Does that make sense?"

Topher nodded, giving her a flirtatious smirk. "Everything except the part when someone called you ugly," He looked her over. "I could never imagine someone doing that."

She chuckled a little. "Thank you, Topher." She giggled. "That was pretty cheesy."

"So you weren't flattered?" Topher raised an eyebrow, keeping the smirk on his face, though it seemed like he was insecure about her response.

"No, I am." Dylan reassured him, frowning slightly. "I was just joking around with you. You okay?"

He looked a bit taken aback by her question. "I'm always okay. I don't know why you ask - I mean, I _am_ practically the perfect guy.. especially for you."

"Please, you hardly know me." She shook her head, amused, before patting him lightly on the shoulder. "But good luck with that."

As she spoke, Sofia and Riley came out of the back room, Riley looking much better than before. She looked between Dylan and Topher, having heard part of their conversation. "Still bothering Dylan, huh?" She raised her eyebrows at Topher.

"I'm not bothering her," Topher crossed his arms, looking almost offended. "Besides, she should be so lucky to be graced by my presence."

"You never lose your arrogance, do you?" Dylan rolled her eyes, standing up to join the two girls. "We should get going. See you guys later?"

Rowan nodded, giving her a sweet smile. "Definitely."

Dylan blushed lightly, "Awesome," She, Riley, and Sofia walked towards the door, calling out, "Bye!" to the guys as they left.

\- PRED -

The next day, Sofia and Dylan were in their room, getting ready, while Riley stood in the bathroom doing the same. They, along with David, Rowan, Topher, and Kenny, were planning on going on a day trip to go hiking in the nearby woods.

Dylan wasn't getting ready as fast as Sofia and Riley were, more so sifting slowly through her clothes, and was obviously a bit distressed, though her reasons for being so were unclear. Sofia put a hand on her shoulder, startling her.

"Sorry," She said. "I was just wondering if you were okay? You seem kinda upset." At this, she noticed Dylan's uncomfortable look. "I know we haven't known each other all too long, but you can talk to me if you need to. I'm sure Riley feels the same way."

Riley poked her head into their room through the bathroom. "I heard my name?"

Sofia nodded, "I was just telling Dylan that we're here for her if she needs anything, or just to talk. Right?"

"Oh," Riley stepped into the room, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "Yeah, sure. I mean, I'm not very serious or anything, but if you wanted to."

"It's fine." Dylan shrugged, standing up and looking at the two of them. "I think I might just stay back today. I'm not, like, sick or anything.. I'm just tired. Don't worry about it, I still want you guys to have fun."

The other two girls looked between each other, before Sofia shot her a smile. "Okay, that's alright. You know where we'll be if you change your mind." Sofia said kindly, before moving past Riley and into the bathroom.

Riley watched Dylan sit down on the bed and run a hand through her hair, before deciding to, once again, awkwardly speak up. "Are you sure you're okay? You're not mad or anything, right?"

She shook her head. "Of course not," Dylan gave her a funny look. "Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know," Riley shrugged, before looking at the ground. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this whole.. comforting people thing. I don't do it very often, most of my friends are very casual."

Dylan chuckled lightly. "Don't worry about, you're fine, and so am I. Sometimes I just need some space to deal with myself, you know what I mean?"

"Not really." Riley admitted. "But, I think I got it." She saw Sofia come out of the bathroom, and shot her a smile. "You ready to get going?"

"Yup," Sofia nodding, picking up a backpack she was bringing. "See you later, Dylan." Dylan nodded at them, and the two set off down the hall to walk towards the boys dorm. By the time they got there, they found Rowan in David and Kenny's room, chatting with them.

Riley looked around. "Where's Topher?"

David gestured to the room next to them. "He's getting ready, I think."

She nodded and walked through the bathroom, and into Topher and Russ' shared room, finding Russ sitting on his bed, staring defiantly up at Topher, who was ignoring him. Riley made a face, turning to Russ. "What's up with you?"

Russ started at her voice, not having seen her since the day before when she was injured. "Umm.. you all are going on a day trip without me?" He asked, just as the others began to walk in, wondering what was going on. "How come I didn't know about this?"

"We planned it yesterday," Kenny told him, bluntly. "Right after you shot Riley."

"I didn't...!" He trailed off, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. This isn't fair. Aren't I your guys' friend too?"

David nodded. "Yeah, you are, but we figured you should have some time to yourself today."

"Besides," Riley spoke up. "Dylan's not going either, so you could always see what she's up to if you get lonely."

Topher halted in his actions, turning to her. "Dylan's not going? Why not?"

Sofia shrugged. "She said she was tired, but not to worry about it."

"Maybe one of us should stay here with her," Topher suggested, practically ready to drop everything to stay behind.

"She said she wanted us to still go," Riley crossed her arms. "Besides, I don't think she'd want you to stay behind and hassle her. She much rather have someone nice like Rowan to stay back, than someone like you." She muttered, smirking back at Rowan, who looked to the side shyly.

"Whatever," Topher turned away from them, finishing what he was doing. "Let's just go."

The group left, saying their goodbyes to Russ, who sat on his bed and ignored them. He continued to sit there until he was sure they were completely gone, before pushing himself up and exiting his room, walking down the hall to see if Dylan was still in her room, as he didn't want to spend the whole day alone.

He made it to the door, and peeking partially inside, seeing as it was partially opened. When he did, he saw Dylan pacing back and forth and holding her hands to her head. Russ was confused by her actions, and was about to knock to let her know he was here, when a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned back to see a tan young woman standing behind him, her arms crossed.

"Are you spying on one of my roommates?" She looked him up and down.

Russ frowned. "Roommates?" He looked at their room. "You must be Riley's roommate, Bryn, right?"

She nodded, giving him a look. "You know Riley?"

"I know all three of them," Russ told her. "I was coming to see if Dylan was still here, which she is."

Bryn grabbed the door nob and quietly pulled the door closed. "She told Riley she wanted to be alone today, so I don't know if you want to interrupt her time." She took him by the arm. "Walk with me."

"To where?" Russ asked, but allowed her to pull him towards the door and out of the dorms.

"We could go to Lake Hastings," Bryn suggested. "If you're down."

"Just the two of us?" Russ said, making her smirk. "Not that I'd have a problem with that, but I was just making sure there wasn't a huge party or anything like that."

Bryn chuckled. "There isn't. It's like 8 am." She nudged him. "That's a good one though." She gestured towards the parking lot. "Come on, let's go."

\- PRED -

"So wait, what happened?" Bryn frowned as the two sat in the sand surrounding the large lake. "I don't understand, and I also don't think you're telling me the full story here."

Russ shrugged. "I can't tell you the whole story. Basically, I accidentally hurt a friend because I was pissed off that someone called me a coward, and now all of my other friends are pissed about it too."

Bryn made a face. "Really? Why? If it was an accident, there's no reason they should be angry."

"Ehh..." Russ sighed. "I mean, I do get it. I was acting on anger and I shouldn't have done that, but it's not like I was _trying_ to hurt her."

She shook her head. "You know, funny thing, I'm actually a psychology major." Bryn told him, making him raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Yeah. I know a lot about the human mind, and I can pick up on cues as to _if_ people are upset, but I usually don't understand the _why_. Emotions are kind of a hard thing for me to understand."

"But you want to be a psychologist?" Russ chuckled. "Isn't that kinda difficult if you don't get why people are upset?"

"It is." Bryn laughed. "But I'm getting better at it. Besides, the mind has always been very fascinating to me, and the fact that I don't understand it makes it even more interesting."

Russ smiled. "That's awesome. I..." He was cut off when a screech came from nearby. The two looked over immediately, Russ seeing Melantha standing in the stand a few yards away, glaring furiously at him. Her face was still extremely damaged from his blast, and she looked like she wanted to kill him, which he imagined she did.

The two stood, Russ turning back to Bryn. "You should get out of here."

"And leave you to fight this.. monster on your own?" Bryn looked at him like he was crazy. "I'd have to be insane!"

"I..." Russ didn't know what to say to her. He couldn't just tell her he was a ranger, but he didn't know what else would make her okay with leaving him there, and it's not like he could just leave with her. Who knows what destruction Melantha could cause while he was gone. "Fine." He said after a few moments. "Be careful."

Russ ran in ahead of her, trying to block Bryn from doing most of the fighting. Melantha swung her staff at him, but he caught it with his hands and tried to rip it from hers. She fought back hard, both them practically playing tug of war with her staff.

He could feel the splinters digging into his hands from her wooden staff and grimaced, though he didn't let up. Bryn saw that Melantha was distracted and came up behind her grabbing her by her vine-like hair and yanking her backwards, startling her and making her let go of the staff. Without the demon's weight on the other end, Russ fell to the ground, throwing the staff out of his hands in the process.

Bryn was struggling against Melantha, continuously trying to move herself out of arms reach from the demon while keeping her grip firm on her hair. Russ moved to get up and help her when Melantha's foot shot out and kicked him hard in the side, making him fall back down and groan.

Melantha growled in annoyance at Bryn and ducked down quicker than she could react, before grabbing Bryn's arm and yanking it behind her body and holding her in front of her as a shield, just like she had done to Riley.

Before either of them could do anything, however, a blast hit Melantha in the back, making her stumble forward a bit, but not let go of Bryn. She turned around to see Dylan, morphed, standing there with her blaster pointed at her.

The demon rolled her eyes. "Please. Don't tell me you're gonna risk a _civilian's_ life now, are you? You're just as much of a coward as your blue ranger friend,"

"You don't know anything about any of us," Dylan ground out, lowering her blaster. "Besides, he made a _mistake_. I got it - he didn't like being called a coward, but I think he's gonna learn that it's more cowardly to hide behind his anger and risk his friend than it is to stand up to his feelings and fight the right way." She said, eyeing Russ, who nodded at her once. "I'm not gonna risk her life."

Melantha smirked. "That's sweet." She rolled her eyes. "Perhaps I'll kill her for you."

"No you won't," Russ exclaimed as he picked up Melantha's fallen staff and rammed it into her back as hard as he could, causing it to go almost straight through her.

She instantly let go of Bryn, who ran over to the white ranger and watched Melantha fall to her knees, looking back up at Russ. "Grifyth will still rise," She croaked. "And he will destroy everything you love." Melantha told him, before falling forward and exploding.

Russ looked up at Dylan as she held Bryn back. "I guess that's a win." He gave her a lopsided smile and a thumbs up.

\- PRED -

After dropping Bryn back off at her dorm, Russ walked a bit down the hall, planning on going to the loft when he found Dylan waiting for him in the hallway. She was leaning against the wall with a slight smirk on her face.

"You did a really good job just now," Dylan complimented him, her tone appreciative. "I mean that wholeheartedly - you were great out there, even unmorphed. If I knew you had it handled, I wouldn't have even come out."

Russ chuckled. "Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. Bryn actually helped, and so did you. If you didn't distract her with your blast, I don't know what I would've done. Besides, you were right, in what you said. I'm stronger when I let go of my anger and protect my friends."

Dylan shrugged. "Hey, everybody makes mistakes. You've made up for it, and no one's gonna hold it against you." She looked down. "Sorry no one invited you on the day trip. We were all kinda still mad."

"It's alright." He looked her up and down. "So, why didn't you go? Are you okay?"

She regarded him awkwardly. "I.. it's just a little anxiety." Dylan shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "I'm okay. Sometimes I just need a little time to separate from everything. I've been getting better though, and I don't mind people being around most of the time."

"Oh, okay. I was just making sure, Princess." Russ nudged her lightly as she rolled her eyes. "We should get to loft and wait for the others to get back, but I'm glad we're all good."

"Of course," Dylan smiled. "Now, let's get over there. The others are probably wondering what happened."

Russ nodded, laughing. "Oh yeah. Wondering how I've screwed up this time, huh?" The two laughed and walked towards the loft.

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders:** After Rowan blows them off to study, even though he doesn't need to, Dylan and Riley decide to break him out of his shell and bring him to a party, only to be overwhelmed by his suddenly different behavior.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Held Down

 **I know I've been gone on this story for a while, but that's going to change. The first season of this story is definitely going to be finished on August 4th, since I'm finally getting back to writing more regularly. Like I said, I won't really have a schedule, but I will still be updating. The only story I can think of that may have a bit of a delay would be Emergency Responders, since I'm not rushing to get that finished at the moment, but I'll try to be consistent on all of them!**

 **I really enjoyed writing some of the budding friendships in this chapters, especially between Dylan and Russ, as well as a bit of Dylan's friendship with Riley. I should be clear that there are no romantic notions between Russ and Dylan, since I really like their friendship and Dylan already has enough romantic activity going on.**

 **Also, I should mention that Topher's slightly off behavior is, again, because of his BPD, and will continue to show up in certain things he says or does until it comes to a head a little later on in the story. I'm really trying to keep his symptoms and his personality separate, because I don't want him to be defined by it, so I apologize if it ever comes off like that.**

 **Here are the next five chapters!**

 **Ep 8: Firepower -** Sofia focused chapter.

 **Ep 9: Party Hard -** Riley focused chapter.

 **Ep 10: Snob -** Topher focused chapter.

 **Ep 11: Should've Been You -** David focused chapter.

 **Ep 12: Perfect World -** Rowan focused chapter.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know what if you liked it - I'd love to know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


	8. Ep 7: Held Back

**Hey guys, I'm back! I was gonna update this much earlier, but I came down with a very bad case of the stomach flu right before my computer decided to start acting up, so I wasn't able to get on to post. I'm okay now though and out with a new (very fast moving) chapter! Hope you like it!**

 **Warning: This chapter contains slightly mature themes, if it bothers/offends you, feel free to skip!**

* * *

Rowan was sitting in the corner of Downtown Cafe, sipping occasionally on his coffee while he read through this textbooks. It was the early evening, and even though he was invited to dinner with the others, he had decided to stay away and study, telling them he didn't have time to meet with them.

The others had believed him and didn't give him a hard time about it, though he did feel a bit bad about blowing them off. He never had many friends growing up since he was always busy with what his parents wanted him to do, so it was an adjustment to get used to always having plans with others.

In all honesty, it even made him uncomfortable sometimes given how open and friendly the others were with him, some being better than others. He was acquainted with Russ and friendly with David, Sofia, and Riley. The only two that really stuck out were Dylan and Topher.

On one hand was Dylan, who he was quite fond of and had connected with right away. Besides his friendship with her, he thought she was very pretty and had an interest in her, though they had just met so he wasn't trying to do anything with her at the moment.

Then there was Topher, who he knew also had an interest in Dylan, and was much more outspoken in that sense. He was clear in letting people know that he wanted her and he wasn't ashamed about it. Because of Rowan's feelings as well, Topher had taken a slight dislike of Rowan, and vise-versa.

Part of Rowan's dislike towards him, however, could be that he didn't want to deal with the drama someone like Topher could bring, but it could also be that he didn't think he _truly_ liked Dylan, but just wanted her for a fun time.

He didn't think she deserved that, and was distrustful of Topher's intentions.

How he got so protective over a girl he barely knows, Rowan isn't sure, but he knows that he is and he wants to keep her happy. Perhaps it was because he hadn't met a girl like her before, or maybe it was because he just felt something there.

It doesn't really matter to him why, as long as everything was fine. He'd figure it out soon enough, that he was sure of.

Now that he had been thinking to himself about the others, Rowan regretted not going to dinner with them even more. He sighed and closed his book, rubbing a hand over his face when he heard the bell ring at the front door.

Looking up, he was surprised to see Riley walking in, her expression entirely unimpressed. She walked over to him and crossed her arms. "So, you're too busy to have dinner, huh?"

"Uhh..." Rowan blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, I just..."

"Look, I'm not here to give you shit for it," Riley sat down gracefully, giving him a coy look. "I actually escaped from dinner to invite you to a party tonight."

Rowan chuckled. "How'd you escape?"

"You know," Riley shrugged nonchalantly. "Told them I had to get ready for something. Dylan and Topher were doing the same, so I figured it wouldn't be that obvious."

He raised an eyebrow. "Dylan and Topher?"

She gave him a sly smirk. "You jealous?" Riley asked, catching him off guard. She laughed at his expression. "Don't worry, it's not like that. They're going too, but the others aren't really interested this weekend. The other guys are going.. I don't know, like fishing, or something, and Sofia and her brother are spending the weekend together."

"So, it's just the four of us," Rowan concluded. "For the whole weekend?"

"Well, you don't have to do it the _whole_ weekend, but there are parties the whole weekend if you wanted to. We were just wondering if you wanted to come tonight," Riley explained. "Come on, Dylan's gonna be there, and she's not on a date with Topher."

"You don't need to tell me that." He said, looking shyly to the side.

Riley rolled her eyes. "Oh yes I do. Just come, alright? You'll have fun."

"Okay, sure." Rowan nodded, smiling at her as she gave him a clap on the shoulder and exited the cafe, before he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

 **\- Cue Opening -**

Later that night, Dylan was standing idly next to Riley, who was drinking and talking up a guy next to the bar. She was looking around to see if anyone she knew was there, since she felt a bit awkward being the third wheel to Riley, who was obviously trying to pick up someone to take home.

"Hey," A deep voice said from behind her, and she turned to see a man she had never met before. He was around her age and holding two drinks in hand, smirking seductively at her. "You know, I've never seen you around here before. I would recognize such a beautiful face."

Dylan gave him an amused look. "Oh yeah? Well, I've been here plenty of times since I started at HHU,"

"Well, I suppose we should get to know each other, given that we haven't met yet," He leaned against the bar, not letting go of his drinks. "I'm Foster."

"Dylan," She introduced herself, though it was clear she wasn't interested from her expression and tone of voice.

Foster chuckled, "Isn't that a guy's name?"

She shrugged, unimpressed. "Yeah, I guess. You can blame my mom for that, if you'd like."

He held his hands up in surrender. "Whoa, don't get mad on me, I was just joking, girl," He nudged her, before offering her one of his drinks. "You want one? It's from a secret stash in the back of some really good stuff."

"How dumb do you think I am?" Dylan crossed her arms, looking him up and down. "You think I'm just gonna take a drink for some strange guy I've never met before at a college party? That's how girls get roofied and raped. No thank you."

"If you don't even know me then how do you know I would do that?" Foster asked, giving her a look.

Dylan gave him a look back, "How do I know you _wouldn't_? Besides, I saw you and a few of your friends passing out drinks to a few girls earlier, and now I don't see them." She told him, watching his expression turn dark. "Yeah, now can you go? I'm waiting for someone,"

"Of course you are," Foster glared at her. "Though I don't know what any guy would want with a girl like you. You don't have anything besides looks,"

"My relationships are my business, but just to be clear, you don't even have looks," Dylan retorted. "Let alone personality or morals," She looked around, before turning back to Riley, who was still chatting up another guy. "Hey, do you know where Topher went?"

Riley shook her head, distractedly. "No, I haven't seen him."

Foster laughed, "Topher Allen? Oh, girl, you got played so hard. He's a total player with a different girl every night, including tonight. Good luck with that, bitch." He snorted as he walked away with his drinks, glaring at her.

She huffed impatiently, turning back to Riley. "What about Rowan?"

"Nope," Riley responded again, before leaning in to kiss the guy with her.

Dylan rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I'm gonna go walk to Rowan's apartment and see if he's there. Be right back." She said, leaving before Riley had time to respond, not that she was going to.

The white ranger made her way out of the party, tugging at the opposite ends of her dress to cover herself more than she was. She felt strangely exposed being alone now, especially in the dark of the night.

Not only that, but it was oddly quiet, and that unnerved her. She figured, given the size of the party, that there would be plenty of people mingling around outside. She was just glad that she didn't have to walk far to get to Rowan's apartment, since it was only down the street.

Approaching a nearby park, she took a deep breath as she began to walk down the dark path. It was the fastest way to get to Rowan, and Dylan wasn't in the mood to spend anymore time out in the open than she had to.

As she continued on the path, making sure to keep to herself, she quickly realized that she could hear footsteps fast approaching her from behind. Dylan began to reach into her small clutch purse for her phone when two large arms suddenly wrapped around her body and grabbed her.

She screamed in shock, struggling and kicking to get out of the man's grip.

"Let go of me!" Dylan cried, trying to grab at his hands, but he had their arms wrapped around her arms as well, making it difficult. "Let go!"

Thinking all of the ways this could go wrong, Dylan used her ability to make everything around them as cold as possible, hoping it would fend him off, though he hardly seemed phased. He began to drag her along with her, despite her struggles and loud protests.

It actually surprised her at how no one could hear her yelling, or that no one was coming if they could. She cursed to herself and didn't let up on her struggle, knowing that she would at least have a better chance by fighting back than not.

After having enough of her fighting back, the man yanked her to the side and threw her onto the ground, pinning her down. Dylan screamed again as he grabbed her by the face, forcing her to look at him. Once she did so, she spit in his face, making slam her on the concrete again, but she didn't let up on struggle.

"Hey!" An angry, booming voice yelled.

Before he could do anything further to her, he was punched hard in the face. The man looked up, only to be grabbed by the other figure and slammed into a nearby wall. It was strange, however, since the figure seemed to be concealed by the shadows until the man was slammed against the wall.

The man chuckled warily, holding his hands up in surrender. "Topher, come on, man. I was just having a little fun,"

Topher let him off of the wall for a moment, only to slam him back against it even harder. "Fuck you," He growled. "Get out of here, you piece of shit. If I ever see you touch a girl again, especially Dylan, I'll kill you."

He shoved the guy off, letting him stumble away in the opposite direction before turning back to Dylan, who was sitting on the ground, staring at him in shock. Topher immediately went over to her, offering her a hand up. She took it after a moment and continued to stare at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking her over. "Did he hurt you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dylan said, breathlessly. "Because of you. Topher, you saved me from.. god knows what he was gonna do." She launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. "Thank you."

"Of course." He nodded, holding her tightly and pressing his chin on the top of her head. They remained like that for a few moments, before they pulled away and Dylan straightened herself out. "Where were you going anyway?"

Dylan looked the side awkwardly. "To go see where Rowan was," She admitted, seeing the look on his face. "Hey, don't be like that. You were with some random girl while I was third wheeling with Riley."

"What are you talking about?" Topher crossed his arms, looking genuinely hurt. "I was talking with some friends, not with a girl. I came to find you because I found out that Foster tried to come and offer you a drink, and I figured you were mad." He explained. "Good thing I did, right? And besides, even if I was, why would it matter to you if I was with a girl?"

She blushed in embarrassment. "It doesn't." She denied. "Why did you have a look on your face when I told you I was going to see Rowan?"

"Probably the same reason." Topher smirked a bit, looking her up and down.

"Don't give me that look, I am not going to admit to that," Dylan put her hands on her hips, defiantly.

Topher chuckled. "You know, it's funny. I've been figuring that Rowan was probably having a lot more luck with you than I was, but I can see that it's not the case."

"Well I did leave the party to find him, not you," Dylan pointed out. "Besides, there's a problem I have with you, Topher. I don't know if I trust your intentions, if I'm gonna be perfectly honest, and I'm not looking for another fling like the last one I had."

He pursed his lips, nodding. "Yeah, no I totally get it. You should get over to Rowan's. Do you want me to walk you the rest of the way, or are you good?"

Dylan frowned at his sudden shift in attitude. "I didn't..."

"No, Dylan, I get it. I'm not gonna make a big fuss over a girl I just met that obviously doesn't want me." Topher said defensively.

"Oh," She rubbed her arm guiltily, before nodding. "Okay, well, I guess I should just get over there. I think I'm fine from here out, but thanks anyway." Dylan went to touch his arm lightly, but he moved away from her and walked the other way, leaving her to walk the rest of the way alone and in silence.

When she finally made it to Rowan's apartment, she could see a light on from under the door. Making a face, Dylan rapped her knuckles on the door, waiting for a few moments until Rowan opened the door, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"I can explain," He offered as she walked into the room, raising an eyebrow at his books open at the table. "I wasn't..."

"Really? You were studying on a Friday night after you told Riley you would come out with us?" Dylan crossed her arms, perching herself one of his chairs. "That's sad."

Rowan gave her a sheepish look. "I needed to study." He defended himself, though he knew the argument was weak.

"No, you didn't. It's Friday, and you have all weekend to study." Dylan gave him a pointed look. "And if you _really_ needed to, you could've said something instead of blowing us off."

He sighed. "I'm sorry."

Dylan nodded. "You should be. I had to come all this way to look for you."

"Wait, you left the party to find me?" Rowan asked, smiling a bit. "Even with Riley and Topher there?"

"Riley left me to myself while she flirted with a guy," Dylan responded, looking a bit chagrined. "And Topher and I weren't spending time together anyways."

"Seriously?" He said, surprised. "I thought you two had a little thing going on."

She rolled her eyes. "You two are just pathetic." She chuckled, shaking her head. "All it is with you guys, 'Were you with Rowan?' or 'Were you with Topher?' What does it matter, anyways?"

Rowan shrugged. "I guess it just matters to me because I care about you." He responded, making her expression soften. "I mean, I don't know him that well, but he doesn't seem like the settling down type. I don't want you to get hurt."

Dylan smirked, "And I'd be better off with you?"

"Well," Rowan blushed shyly. "I never said that,"

"But you were thinking it," Dylan nudged him. "Either way, that's sweet that you care so much. I appreciate it. I've never really had a guy care so much before."

He shook his head, "I don't believe that."

"It's true." She replied. "Honestly, I've only really been a friend with benefits, not a girlfriend, even though he flirted with me constantly. I don't know if he cared like that, but I don't think he did."

Rowan put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, I do care, always - regardless of what happens."

Dylan looked him up and down, before standing up and kissing him lightly. "Thanks, Rowan. You're good to me," She put her hand on his, before he removed it from her shoulder. "So, are you gonna come to a party tomorrow, or what?"

"I guess I have to," Rowan laughed. "Or else you're gonna come find me again."

She gave him a simper. "I wouldn't mind it too much," She said coyly. "But, I'd rather have you come out to the party and find me, instead."

He watched her as she walked to the door and leaned against it. "I could do that." Rowan nodded. Dylan shot him a wink before leaving and shutting the door behind her.

\- PRED -

The next evening, Riley and Dylan were in the bathroom together, getting ready for the party that night. The white ranger was slipping on a pair of tight pants and a small shirt, while the purple ranger was more focused on looking at herself in the mirror.

Riley wasn't nearly ready yet, barely slipping on risque lingerie over her undergarments before grabbing her dress to put it on.

"You really go all out, don't you?" Dylan smirked, gesturing to the lingerie.

She shrugged, returning the smirk. "I should always dress to impress, right?"

Dylan laughed. "I mean, I guess you're not wrong." She sobered and started fixing her makeup. "Hey, so Rowan's coming tonight,"

"Really? How do you know he's not gonna bail again?" Riley asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I don't," Dylan sighed. "But, I really hope not. He needs to get out more, anyways."

"Well, I think I know why you want him to come," Riley nudged her playfully. "You like Rowan, don't you?"

She looked to the side, half-embarrassed and half-guiltily. "Honestly, I have no idea." Dylan said, looking back at her. "Rowan's a really, really nice guy, and he's there for me when I need him, but..."

"But then there's Topher?" Riley concluded.

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, there's Topher. He cares about me to a crazy amount, and everything I say means so much to him - he gets really happy when I say something nice to him and gets so hurt when I say something that's not so nice, or that he takes the wrong way. Not only that, but Topher tries to do a lot for me and gets offended when anyone insinuates that he's not good for me."

Riley pursed her lips and shook her head. "You see, this is why I don't date. No strings attached is the easiest way to go."

"Doesn't mean it's the best," Dylan pointed out. "I mean, a relationship is hard but it brings a lot of great things into your life, if you're with the right person."

The purple ranger made a face. "How could you ever be sure that the person you're with is the right one?"

"I don't know," Dylan responded, honestly. "I think sometimes you just know, and that's all there is to it. The people you love do crazy things, and some people aren't the right ones, but I do believe that everyone has someone that's a match for them."

"Maybe." Riley shrugged, not caring enough to argue back. "So, who are you gonna choose?"

"Choose? I don't know," She said, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "I barely know them yet."

Riley scoffed. "I've seen people get together in less and stay together for longer."

"Well, I guess I just haven't felt that spark, yet," Dylan replied. "Once I feel that spark with someone, I think I'll know that I want to be with them." She was quiet for a moment, before she spoke up again. "I kissed Rowan last night."

"What?!" Riley turned to her immediately, her face lit up. "You didn't tell me that!"

Dylan chuckled. "I didn't tell anybody, if it makes you feel any better."

She gaped at her. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Dylan answered. "He said something sweet and I gave him a little kiss. That's it."

Riley raised an eyebrow skeptically. "That's it? Really?"

"Yeah, actually." Dylan muttered. "If I'm being honest, I didn't feel that spark with him - not at all. I feel like I did when I was with my friend with benefits, actually."

"Ooh," Riley cringed. "That's not good on the scoreboard for him."

"I know, and I think it might be because I've already associated myself in my mind as his friend," Dylan explained. "Like, even if I'm good friends with a guy, if I have an interest in him, I always keep that in the back of my mind. I didn't do that for Rowan,"

She gave her a look. "Let me guess, because you were too focused on Topher."

Dylan looked down guiltily. "He's unconventional and surprisingly really sweet, under all of that snobby, rich boy stuff. I don't know, he just appeals to me in a way I can't explain."

"Good luck with that," Riley responded, without giving her advice. "So, are you almost ready to go?"

"Uh.. yeah, I think so." Dylan slipped her shoes on. "I'm ready when you are."

Riley gestured to the door. "Let's go then." She said, leading Dylan out of the room.

\- PRED -

When they got to the party, they were surprised to see how lively it had gotten in such a short amount of time. It was already rather large and it was much more intense than most of the parties they had been to previously.

While Dylan looked a bit vexed at the prospect of being a part of this party, Riley's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning.

"This is amazing!" Riley exclaimed over the loud music.

Dylan gave her a strange look. "Not exactly what I'd call it. Isn't it a little intense?"

"Not even close! I love this!" Riley yelled, quickly walking over to the bar to grab a drink and chat up the people around her, leaving Dylan alone.

"As usual," Dylan muttered to herself. "I'm the buzzkill that gets left all alone by the party queen herself." She looked around to see if anyone else she knew was there, and spotted Topher drinking in the corner, surprisingly by himself. Dylan walked up to him, tapping him on the shoulder. "Hey, what are you doing over here?"

"Drinking away my sorrows, what's it to you?" Topher retorted. "Besides, I figured you'd be with your boyfriend by now."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I haven't seen Rowan yet."

"He's around here somewhere." Topher told her. "I swear the party didn't start until he walked in. The last time I saw him, he was doing body shots with some girls who were fawning over his accent."

"That's impossible." Dylan shook her head. That didn't sound like Rowan at all, but then again, she hadn't known him for all that long. "Are you sure its Rowan you're talking about? Or that you're not just lying to make me feel bad about him?"

Topher looked up at her from his seat, a look on his face that she had never seen before. His expression was very emotional, like he had been betrayed deeply. "Am I really such a bad person that I could only be lying if I say anything bad about golden boy Rowan?" He stood hastily, glaring at her. "Nice to know how you really feel."

Dylan opened her mouth to respond, but Topher stormed off before she could do so, looking after him and feeling irritated with herself. "Good going, Dylan." She rolled her eyes.

"Talking to yourself?" A voice called from behind her, and she turned to find Rowan walking downstairs with a girl trailing behind him, both of them slipping their clothes back on. "That's low. Maybe we should get a drink to calm you down."

She stared at him in shock, watching the girl hand him her number seductively before stalking away to the party. "Who's that?"

Rowan shrugged, stuffing the number in his pocket. "I don't know. Why? You jealous?"

The white ranger scoffed. "Excuse me?" She was taken aback by his behavior, and wasn't pleased at all by it.

"I'm sure you heard me." Rowan looked bored. "Anyways, are we gonna do this thing or what?"

Dylan crossed her arms. "Do what thing?"

"Ooh, she's crossing her arms. I'm so intimidated," Rowan chuckled, rolling his eyes. "You know what I'm talking about. We'll get a couple of drinks, get a room upstairs, and then act like it never happened in the morning, unless you wanted more."

"Okay, you're acting really dickish right now, Rowan. Can you stop, please?" Dylan said, feeling a bit hurt by his behavior.

He made a face. "Don't be so sensitive. I never get to do anything like this, and I really want to enjoy it. I mean, I enjoyed it with that other chick, but that doesn't mean I won't with you too."

"That's not gonna happen," Dylan said, with no room for argument.

"Come on," Rowan nudged her, and she moved away from his touch. "Look, let's just get a drink and we can discuss all of this."

She shook her head. "No thank you. We can discuss this later."

"Don't be so down about this." Rowan pressed. "You're acting like a prude."

"Hey," Topher suddenly interjected, coming between the two and standing in front of Dylan. He looked incredibly intimidating, especially at his incredibly tall stature that even out won Rowan's. "She said no, so why don't you leave her alone? You're just drunk, dude. Back off."

Rowan scoffed. "I'm not drunk, and you don't need to but into our conversation."

"Well, considering she doesn't want to talk to you, I wouldn't consider it much of a conversation." Topher responded, not moving from his spot.

"You're just upset because she likes me and not you," Rowan accused. "She doesn't trust you, or even like you, so why are you defending her?"

Topher rolled his eyes. "You don't know anything about us," He growled, his fists clenching. "So why don't you shut the hell up and get the fuck out of here?"

He smirked slyly. "She'll never like you, you know. Dylan cares about me, and you know how I know that? Because last night she left you to come over to my apartment to find _me._ After that, she kissed me. I bet she never did that to you. She did it to me because she's mine."

"Rowan, knock it off!" Dylan hissed from behind Topher, who was just getting angrier.

"Don't talk about her like she's some piece of property!" Topher sneered. "You don't deserve someone like her!"

"And you do?" Rowan asked lowly. "You're just some crazy rich boy that's obsessed with her!"

Suddenly, Topher's fist went flying towards Rowan's face, connected hard with his cheek and knocking him to the ground. Dylan shrieked in surprise at this, and watched as Rowan got back up and lunged at Topher, tackling him to the ground.

Rowan and Topher were practically wrestling on the ground, having broken a nearby table in their fall. Rowan threw a hard punch at his jaw, making Topher's lip split open and bleed freely. When some of the blood got in his mouth, Topher spit it up at his face and kicked him off, using the opportunity to stand up and wipe his mouth off, the adrenaline from the first punch wearing off.

The yellow ranger, however, wasn't done there. He rushed at Topher, shoving him into the wall and punching him a few more times.

"Stop it!" Dylan screamed over the loud music and cheers from the crowd that was surrounding them. "Now! Stop it!" She ran forward and attempted to pull them apart when she was accidentally shoved by one of the punches being thrown and fell onto a chair.

Instantly, everyone went silent and Topher immediately pushed the distracted Rowan off of him and moved over to her, pulling her off of the chair. "Are you alright?"

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, he barely touched me, and it wasn't on purpose anyways." She looked between the two and grabbed them both by the arms, dragging them towards the exit. "We are going outside, right now." She caught Riley's eye as the purple ranger was about to go upstairs and gestured for her to come with. Riley gave her a disappointed look and said something to the people she was going with, before complying with Dylan.

The four got outside, Dylan taking Topher over to one bench while Riley took Rowan to another. Dylan grimaced at the bruises forming on Topher's face, and put one of her hands over a bruise, using her ability effectively as an ice pack.

"Are you alright?" She asked softly.

He looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," He said quietly. Topher paused for a minute, before speaking up again. "Did you really kiss him?"

Dylan bit her lip guiltily. "Yes, I did." She admitted. "But I didn't feel anything about it, even though I thought I would."

"What's that mean?" Topher asked, eyes shining up at her.

She shrugged. "It means that I don't think me and Rowan are going anywhere, and not just because of tonight. I played it off last night to act like it was nothing out of the ordinary, but I doubt anything gonna happen."

Topher stared at her. "And?"

The white ranger gave him an emotional smile. "You defended me twice in two days without question, and you didn't ask me for anything in return." She leaned down and kissed him carefully, before pulling away. "I trust you. I'm sorry I didn't before."

"What now?" He asked, their faces close.

Dylan pulled away. "We see what happens." She told him. "That's all we can do, right?"

"Yeah, right." Topher nodded.

Meanwhile, Riley had gotten some ice from inside and had wrapped it in a napkin for Rowan, who was holding it to his cheek. She was regarding him with a bit of judgement, and also confusion. He looked up at her, noticing her gaze.

"I know I screwed up." Rowan said, dejectedly. "You don't have to tell me. I don't know what got ahold of me."

"Booze?" Riley suggested, but sighed when Rowan gave her a look. "Look, I don't know what happened in there either, so why don't you tell me what you _do_ know, and we'll go from there,"

Rowan shook his head, "I guess I just got out of hand. I've never been able to go out like this before because my father was always pressuring be to stay back and study for school. He was all business and nothing else. I was always felt like I was just a project to him, so I always have gotten a little out of hand when I do things I'm not used to, like this."

She looked him up and down, before sitting down beside him. "I'm not good at this whole.. comforting people thing, but that fucking sucks that he treated you like that. Being held back is bullshit no one wants to deal with, and it's completely unfair. That still doesn't give you the right to be a crazy bitch, though."

"I'm aware of that." Rowan assured her. He ran a hand through his hair. "God, it's been two years and he still has such a hold over me. I can't believe it."

Riley reluctantly put a hand on his shoulder. "Just be careful about what you do, alright? That's all you can do. If you go to a party, just remember that you can do whatever you want now without rule, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't set some for yourself."

He looked at her, shocked that Riley, of all people, was comforting him so well. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it," She clapped him on the shoulder, the two glancing over at Topher and Dylan, who were talking as well. "She's probably not gonna want to talk to you right away, so just let her come to you." Riley paused, before turning back to him. "I'll talk to her for you, though. Put in a good word."

Rowan smiled softly at her. "Okay, thanks."

She nodded. "Like I said, don't worry about it." She smiled a bit back, before walking towards Dylan and Topher, leaving Rowan to himself.

* * *

 **Next time on Power Rangers Earth Defenders:** After a news report names Sofia as the 'weakest link' of the team, she has a lapse in confidence during a fight.

 **Next Chapter Title:** Firepower

 **So, I know that Rowan seemed very out of character during the party scene, but as said, it's because he's been held back from doing what he wants his entire life, and gets a little bit out of control when he can because he doesn't set those boundaries for himself, as he's been used to others doing for him.**

 **Also, Dylan and Topher are not in a relationship, but this is all building up to it. At the beginning I wasn't sure of who I wanted her to be with, which is why I kept going back and forth with it, but I decided as I was writing this chapter that this is the way I want it to go. Sorry to those who wanted Rowan and Dylan instead, but don't worry, since I do have a different person in mind for him!**

 **Now, onto more serious endeavors, I know I said that on my 5th anniversary I was going to not only post my 5th special chapter, but also my 10th story (I would also have posted my 9th just before then), but with the time I couldn't write while I was sick and had computer problems, I've since had to readjust my plan. I will be, without a doubt, posting my special chapter, but I do not think I'll be able to get my 10th story up by August 4th, since I have to finish PRGG first.**

 **That being said, I will still be working just as hard to get as much as possible done, and I will, hopefully, be able to get at least a chapter of my 9th story out before then, and will get my 10th out within the next couple of months. I'm am so sorry for the inconvenience, but I will definitely be hard at work to get everything out to you guys as soon as I can! I hope you understand!**

 **Sorry for this super long author's note!** **Here are the next five chapters!**

 **Ep 9: Party Hard -** Riley focused chapter.

 **Ep 10: Snob -** Topher focused chapter.

 **Ep 11: Should've Been You -** David focused chapter.

 **Ep 12: Perfect World -** Rowan focused chapter.

 **Ep 13: Make Things Right -** Russ focused chapter.

 **See you guys soon, and let me know if you liked it - I'd love to know what you thought!**

 **© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley**


End file.
